Special to WorldTribune.com

GAZA CITY — Hamas has been executing Palestinians suspected of working for Israeli intelligence.

Palestinian sources said scores of Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of supplying information to Israeli intelligence agencies. They said more than 30 of them were executed in July and August 2014 amid the war with Israel.

“Some of them were shot dead in the streets as a warning to others, but most of them were killed in secret and their bodies were dumped outside,” a source said.

Over a three-day period, at least 25 Palestinians were executed around Gaza City. On Aug. 22, at least 18 Palestinians were executed in wake of an Israeli air strike that killed three senior Hamas commanders. The sources said 11 Palestinians were killed at Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City.

“The resistance has begun an operation called ‘Strangling the Necks,’ targeting collaborators who aid the [Israeli] occupation, kill our people and destroy houses,” the Hamas-aligned Majd website said.

Hours later, seven others were executed in downtown Gaza City in what prompted a condemnation by the Palestinian Authority. The sources said hundreds gathered to watch the condemned, dressed in black, as they were shot dead by masked gunmen outside a mosque.

“They were random executions of those whom Hamas called collaborators,” PA secretary-general Tayib Abdul Rahim said.

On Aug. 23, another four Palestinians were executed. Two days earlier, three others were shot dead by masked Hamas gunmen.

“The same punishment will be imposed soon on others,” the Hamas website Al Rai said.

Hamas has acknowledged the executions. An official said those executed had been tried and sentenced by courts in the Gaza Strip.

“They provided the enemy with information about the whereabouts of fighters, tunnels of resistance, bombs, houses of fighters and places of rockets, and the occupation bombarded these areas killing a number of fighters,” a Hamas notice posted near the execution site said.

  Gaza City, Hamas said to have executed more than 30 alleged Israeli collaborators, Tayib Abdul Rahim