Palestinian collaborators to relocate
Israel expected to offer collaborators relocation to Israeli towns following Gaza pullout; scores of suspected collaborators have been executed without trial since 2000
JERUSALEM - IDF troops are set to evacuate and destroy a camp in the Gaza Strip housing Palestinian collaborators and offer its residents new lives in Israel when the army pulls out of the area, a top official said.
"Israel will evacuate this camp because the Palestinians who have helped us have been threatened with death after we leave," said the source. "We do not normally abandon to their fate those who have taken risks in being of service to us in the fight against terrorism."
Public radio said the decision was made last week after a poll conducted in the camp found most of its residents wanted to be transferred to Israel.
Nine death sentences since 1994
The collaborators will be rehoused in various towns, although a small minority have decided to brave the risks and remain in Gaza after the Israeli military evacuates the area.
The camp will be destroyed and not handed over to Palestinian Authority officials, the radio reported.
Since the Palestinian uprising flared in September 2000, scores of suspected collaborators have been killed without trial by armed groups operating in Gaza and the West Bank.
Top Palestinian Muslim cleric, Jerusalem mufti Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, is examining the cases of 51 prisoners, including collaborators, sentenced to death by the courts since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.
Earlier this month, the PA announced it would resume carrying out the death penalty for the first time in 2002. The majority of the sentences were handed down by the Palestinian Security Court and cannot be appealed.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, nine death sentences have been carried out since 1994 out of a total of 70 imposed by the courts.
