A military court in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Monday jailed a Palestinian convicted of “spying” for Israel to 15 years, judicial sources said.

In March two other men were given the same sentence for the same offence.

Under Hamas and Palestinian Authority law, those convicted of “collaboration” with Israel, murder and drug trafficking face the death penalty.  

Execution orders must be approved by the Palestinian Authority president before they can be carried out, but Hamas no longer recognizes the legitimacy of Mahmoud Abbas whose four-year term ended in 2009.

The Islamist terrorist group has carried out formal executions ordered by its courts and summary, sometimes public, killings of “collaborators” condemned by “revolutionary tribunals”.

During last year’s summer war with Israel in Gaza, men wearing uniforms of the armed wing of Hamas riddled with bullets six alleged collaborators outside Gaza City’s main mosque as worshippers left after midday prayers.

It was part of a wider spree of killings of men accused of spying for Israel, although the PA claimed most were simply members of rival factions and that Hamas took the opportunity to carry out a bloody purge of its opponents in Gaza.

AFP contributed to this report.