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Capital punishment in the Gaza Strip has been enforced by multiple governments, militaries, and irregular militias throughout the area's history. A large proportion of the killings have been associated with broader violent conflicts. Many of the executions have be described asextrajudicial killings due to an incomplete or unaccountable court procedures.
According to Palestinian law, there are 77 crimes that are punishable by the death penalty. From 1994 to 2022, approximately 260 death sentences have been issued: around 230 in Gaza and 30 in the West Bank. In total, during this period, 41 executions were carried out, with the vast majority occurring in Gaza.[1]
The State Security Court in Gaza (Arabic:محكمة أمن الدولة في غزة), which was formed in 1995, issued several death sentences against eight people, as follows: 3 in 1995, 3 in 1997, and 2 in 1999, all of which were in murder cases. Not all sentences were carried out.[2]
 | You can helpexpand this section with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Arabic. (May 2024)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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From theBattle of Gaza (2007) until theIsraeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, TheHamas movement had control of the interior of the Gaza Strip on the ground, but did not control the airspace, maritime borders, or land borders.[3] Two parallel Palestinian judicial systems carried out executions in the Gaza Strip, civil and military.[4] The judiciary of theHamas-led civilian government and themilitary courts of theEzzedeen al Qassam Brigades. TheWest Bank and Gaza Strip governments collaborate closely on issues such as health, but on other issues the Gaza Strip authorities act more autonomously. Palestinian law requires approval from thePalestinian National Authority president (currentlyMahmoud Abbas) for the death penalty,[5] but authorities in the Gaza Strip have disregarded this rule on multiple occasions.[6]
During the2014 Gaza War,[7][8] Hamas executed more than 20 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.[9]
According to anAmnesty International report, 23 Palestinians were executed by Al-Qassam in the course of the 2014 conflict, and 16 of those people had been in prison since before the war began.[10][11] Some were on trial for espionage, but those trials were suddenly cut short. From among the executed, 6 were killed by a firing squad outside a mosque in front of hundreds of spectators, including children. Amnesty claimed that Hamas used the cover of the war, which had a very heavy death toll,[7] to carry outsummary executions, to settle scores against opponents under the pretext they were collaborators with Israel.[12][9] They were also accused of torture.[8]
Most of these executions of alleged collaborators occurred in response to theIDF assassinatingMuhammad Abu Shamala [ar] andRaed Attar, and theunsuccessful attempt to assassinateMohammed Deif, which instead killed his 27-year-old wife, Widad, and his 7-month-old sonAli Deif. The following day, 18 of the suspected collaborators were executed by firing squad.[13][14][15][16] The day after that, the body of Deif's 3-year-old daughter, Sarah, was recovered from the rubble of the same home.[16][14][15]
ThePalestinian Center for Human Rights reported in December 2015 that Hamas issued nine death sentences in 2015. Hamas had sentenced four Gazans to death during the first weeks of 2016, all on suspicion of spying.[17]
In February 2016, Al Qassam claimed they had executed ofMahmoud Rushdi Eshtewi [ar] (Arabic:محمود رشدي اشتيوي),[a][19][20] one of the group's leading commanders, for very ambiguous reasons. Eshtewi was survived by his two widows and his three children.[better source needed][21] Most reliable sources at the time described the charges as unnamed or undefined.[22][23][19][24] The stated reason was"for behavioral and moral violations to which he confessed" (Arabic:تجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها).[19][20][24] Whatever it may refer to, the confession was probably obtained by torture.[24][23] Before his death, his family had been told that the death penalty charge - treason (giving information to Israel that causes the deaths of Palestinians) - had been dropped.[24] There is some suspicion that Eshtewi died in custody and was shot after death, from reports of people who saw his body before burial and thought the bullet wounds looked suspicious.[19][24] TheNew York Times and other media from the USA interpreted the vague charges as a reference to a "homosexual relationship".[21][17]
In May 2016, Hamas reportedly executed three men by firing squad and hanging.[25] The execution was performed in the al-Katiba prison. The executed men were convicted for murder. Reportedly, the execution defied protests from theUnited Nations and "will likely" deepen tensions with thePalestinian government in the West Bank.[25] Hamas defied an agreement with Fatah, the ruling party in the West Bank, by carrying out the executions without the approval of Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas. Hamas later announced that 13 additional prisoners are to be executed.[26]
In April 2017, it was reported that three Palestinians were executed by Hamas in Gaza Strip over alleged collaboration with Israel.[27] Reportedly, the men were hanged at a Hamas police compound, as dozens of Hamas leaders and officials watched the killing.[28][29]
According toB'Tselem, Hamas courts handed down 13 death sentences in January-August 2022, but had not carried out any since 2017.[6]
On 4 September 2022, Hamas announced they had executed five men, including two men condemned over collaboration with the occupation (Israel), and three others in criminal cases.[30] A resident ofKhan Younis born 1968 was convicted of supplying Israel in 1991 with “information on men of the resistance, their residence… and the location of rocket launchpads”; a second man, born 1978, was for supplying Israel in 2001 with intelligence “that led to the targeting and martyrdom of citizens” by Israeli forces, according to Hamas.[6] The other three men had been convicted for murder.
After the Gaza peace plan was implemented in October 2025, Hamas carried out executions of what they alleged were collaborators and criminals across the Gaza Strip, citing crime and security concerns.[31][32] The first occurred on September 22, when three people accused of collaborating with Israel were shot.[32] Reports indicate that 33 men were killed in total.[31][32] Humanitarian organizations, including theAl-Mezan Center for Human Rights, condemned the killings as extrajudicial executions and called for accountability.[33]
| Executed during | Person(s) | Detained | Death sentence | Execution | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name or number | Age | Date | Charge(s) | Date | Method | |||
| 2014 Gaza War | Ayman Taha | Treason [A] | 2014-08-04 [disputed][B] | Firing squad [disputed][B] | [34] | |||
| 25 or more people | summary executions | Treason [C] | 2014-08-21 to 24 August | Various[D] | [35] | |||
| Atta Najjar | Treason | 2014-08-22 | Unknown | [36] | ||||
| Mahmoud Eshtewi [ar] (also spelled "Ishtiwi") | 34 | January 2015 | Undisclosed | Undefined[E] (see above) | 2016-02-07 | Firing squad [disputed][F] | [23][24][37] | |
| 3 people | Murder (3) | September 2022 | ||||||
| 1 person[G] | 1991 | Treason[H] | ||||||
| 1 person | 44[I] | 2001 or after[J] | Treason[J] | |||||
| 5 people | 2023-08-06 | Treason[K] | Sentenced to hanging.[L] | [38] | ||||
Hamas'Al-Qassam Brigades militant wing have been credibly accused of numerous war crimes including variousextrajudicial killings, but commonly told stories about executions in the Gaza Strip have been over simplified, exaggerated, distorted, or completely fabricated.[39] For example, during theGaza war, a video described as“Hamas executes people by throwing them off a roof of a building!” circulated on social media, but the video was from 2015 and not from Palestine.[39] A July 2015 report fromAl Arabiya, included identical images and stated that they were originally shared by theIslamic State, and showed the execution of four gay men inFallujah, Iraq.[39]
Same sex sexual behaviour is not officially or typically acapital crime in the Gaza Strip.[40][41] The only crimes that routinely attract the death penalty are treason and murder. No laws currently in place in theoccupied Palestinian territory directly prohibit sex between consenting adult women.[42] But there are differences between the Gaza Strip and West Bank governments regarding the legal status of sex between consenting adult men. The laws against homosexual behavior between men in Palestine that are currently in place in theGaza Strip are a relic of British colonial rule inMandatory Palestine.[40][41] There is some ambiguity and debate about whether homosexuality was decriminalized in 1858, during the Ottoman period that precededMandatory Palestine.[43] The British colonial laws that are currently on place in theGaza Strip specify a maximum sentence of 10 or 14 years in prison.[40][41] There is very little evidence that these laws are actually enforced in Gaza.[40] Some interpretations of the laws say that it does not outlaw consensual gay sex between adults at all. In 2018, Anis. F. Kassim (editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Yearbook of International Law) said that Palestinian law (even in Gaza) could be interpreted as allowing non-commercial sex between consenting adult men.[41]
Hamas announced that the man in charge of a number of the group's tunnels used for smuggling and surprise attacks had been executed for moral turpitude, a Hamas term for homosexuality[better source needed] ... a Hamas[who?] investigation alleged that Ishtiwi had hidden money designated for his unit's weapons, before an unnamed man claimed to have had sex with him, providing details about their meetings. The investigation concluded that the money Ishtiwi had stolen had been used to pay the man for sexual relations or to bribe him to keep Ishtiwi's secret.Note: The phrase translated by this source as "moral turpitude" is translated in other sources as "moral transgressions" and can also be read as "ethics violations", and there is no evidence of it being used by Hamas in any other context to specifically refer toMen who have Sex with Men (MSM).
لتجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها - For his behavioral and moral transgressions that he acknowledged.
Adding a layer of scandal to the story, he was accused of moral turpitude, by which Hamas meant homosexuality." … "Mr. Ishtiwi, who is survived by two wives and three children…
His family said they discovered that Qassam operatives held him in secret locations until February 7, when the group's Military Information Department issued a statement saying it had executed Eshtewi after sentencing him to death "for behavioral and moral violations to which he confessed".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)لتجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها - For his behavioral and moral transgressions that he acknowledged.
"convicted of collaboration with hostile entities in violation of Article 131 of the 1979 Palestinian Revolutionary Penal Code.
Only men are criminalised under this law.
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