As part of the ceasefire deal, Hamas released some Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. While Israeli hostages were greeted by their families with open arms, a different fate awaited two of the released Palestinians.
Once in Hamas custody, two Palestinians were accused of having collaborated with Israel by informing on Palestinians. They were then executed and their bodies desecrated and hung. India Today reports:
Two alleged informers for Israel were killed by Palestinian militants in a refugee camp in the West Bank early on Saturday. Their bodies were kicked by the mob and dragged through alleys before being hung on an electric pole, The Associated Press reported. This development comes as the truce between Israel and Hamas entered its second day.
A local militant group had accused two Palestinians of helping Israeli security forces in the Tulkarem refugee camp on November 6. The raid in the refugee camp had killed three key militants, according to a Palestinian security officer. The deceased duo were identified as 31-year-old Hamza Mubarak and 29-year-old Azam Juabra, The Times of Israel reported.
The militant group was not directly affiliated with Hamas, in fact being an offshoot member of its historic rival Fatah. This shows the closer cooperation between various Palestinian factions, similar to the wartime coalition seen in Israel. The family of the men quickly disavowed their relatives in a show of patriotic solidarity. The AP says:
The local militant group — affiliated with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of the secular nationalist Fatah party — posted a cryptic statement just after the two men were reported killed. “We did not wrong them, but they wronged themselves,” it said.
The family of one of the accused informers sought to distance itself in a statement Saturday, calling its disgraced relative a “malicious finger that we have cut off without regret.”
Hamas’s execution of the alleged informants could either be a sign of great internal control and support, or of total Israeli intelligence penetration sowing doubt. The ceasefire is scheduled to hold for another 2 days if nothing goes wrong.
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