The Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip on Monday approved the killing of Israeli collaborators but denied allegations it had attacked members of the rival Fatah faction during last month's war. "The government will show no mercy to collaborators who stab our people in the back, and they will be held accountable according to the law... if any collaborator is sentenced to death, we will not hesitate to carry it out," government spokesman Taher al-Nunu told reporters."The government differentiates between violations of the law and those acts undertaken by the resistance during a time of war to protect itself from the danger of collaborators," he added.
His remarks came after Palestinian human rights groups and victims accused the Hamas authorities of attacking dozens of members of the rival Fatah party of president Mahmoud Abbas whom the Islamists accused of working for Israel.
The Islamist group -- which drove Abbas's loyalists from Gaza when they seized power in June 2007 -- was also accused of placing Fatah members under house arrest during the three-week-long Israeli offensive.
Hamas government officials insist security forces apply the law equally to all Gazans, regardless of political affiliation.
But Ihab al-Ghusein, a spokesman for the Hamas-run interior ministry, defended the killing of suspected collaborators by armed groups during the Israeli offensive in which more than 1,330 Palestinians were killed.
"The resistance groups have nothing to do with internal security in normal times... because that is the role of the security services," he said.
"But there were collaborators who were killed during the fighting while they were trying to strike the resistance in the back."
Nunu said the government had not yet received any formal complaints concerning the incidents, but was investigating them nonetheless.
Prisoners executed
The Gaza-based Ad-Dameer Association for Human Rights last week said that 10 prisoners were executed after they were accused of collaborating with Israel because Israeli forces bombarded the prison in which they were held.
"There have been dozens of cases of persecution across the territory during and after the war. There have been grave violations of human rights and investigations must be launched," said Samir Mussa, a lawyer with the rights group said.