After three Hamas leaders were killed on Thursday in Israeli airstrikes meant to destabilize Hamas leadership, 18 Palestinians were murdered on Friday after claims that they were Israeli informants. The Palestinians that met such a horrible fate were executed by firing squads. The executions took place in Gaza City after the Palestinians had been through a “resistance court” that sentenced them to death for collaborating with Israel.
Only a few hours later, a 4 year-old boy was killed during a barrage of mortar fire that Palestinian fighters had landed near the Gaza border.
The child, Daniel Tregerman, was the first Israeli child to lose his life during the six weeks of conflict between Israel and Hamas. On the other hand, according to recent counts, more than 469 children were killed after Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side, UNICEF declares.
According to Magen David Adom, an Israeli first aid organization, the 4 year-old boy was killed after the mortar shell hit a group of cars parked outside his home. Shrapnel then penetrated the boy’s room and mortally injured him.
Soon after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas that a heavy price would be paid for this terrible murder.
On a Hamas-affiliated website, a group calling itself the Palestinian Resistance, made the information public that nine men and two women had been executed on Friday in the courtyard of an abandoned police station after having been accused of collaborating with Israel.
Eyewitnesses report that seven additional men were then brought against the walls. They had bags over their heads and were held at gunpoint by men in Hamas uniforms. This happened, according to local news reports, in front of the Al-Umari mosque.
In spite of the executions, neither the names nor the charges against the victims were released by either Hamas or the Palestinian Resistance. According to them, no names would be made public so as to spare the families of the victims from public shame.
The bodies of the murdered men and women were then dumped at the Shifa hospital or the al-Azhar University.
Palestinian militants insisted that the informers had been tried and found guilty of collaborating with Israel and providing information that led to the destruction of “resistance houses” and tunnels.
Shaul Shay, former deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council explained that Hamas is now fearing that Israeli intelligence has penetrated their organization and are going to every length to find out who is aiding Israel to target Hamas leaders.
