GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Hamas-controlled military court in Gaza has sentenced six people to death for allegedly collaborating with Israel on a failed covert operation in Gaza on Nov. 11, in which six Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed.
Numerous rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, condemned the verdicts, especially since Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been an outspoken opponent of capital punishment. In June, Abbas signed seven international conventions and treaties, among them the 1989 UN Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which aims to abolish the death penalty. Hamas immediately rejected his action.
