GAZA, April 7, 2012 (WAFA) – Hamas security Saturday executed three Gaza residents, one on charges of treason and spying for Israel, according to a Hamas report.

The other two were executed after they were convicted of murder.

This was the first executions in the Gaza Strip this year, which came only 48 hours after a senior Hamas official had announced that execution of convicts brings security to the Gaza Strip.

According to the Hamas report, a Gaza military court has passed the death penalty against a resident it did not name after it found him guilty of collaboration with the enemy and participation in murder.

The Court of First Instance of Deir al-Balah, south of the Gaza Strip, had also sentenced to death by execution of a civilian after it found him guilty of murder and possession of a deadly weapon.

The third death sentence was passed by the Court of First Instance of Khan Younis, also south of the Gaza Strip, after it found a local resident guilty of premeditated murder, kidnapping, sodomy of a minor, and possession of a weapon.

The death sentences were passed based on the Revolutionary Penal Code of the Palestine Liberation Organization of 1979.

The executions are bound to draw strong criticism from Palestinian and international human rights organizations, which strongly oppose the death penalty and demand abolition of capital punishment.

The new Palestinian law, which has not yet been ratified, bans capital punishment, according to Palestinian justice officials.

M.H./M.S.