Palestinian family shoots dead relative suspected of spying for Israel
A Palestinian family in the Gaza Strip said on Friday it had killed a relative they said had helped Israel track down and kill three senior Hamas militants, including one of the man's own kinsmen.
In a statement, the family of Ahmed Barhoum said it had shot him in the city of Rafah after they were told by a militant group that he had provided information to Israel. This, the statement said, guided an Israeli air strike during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge that targeted the Hamas militants.
"In light of our religious and moral commitment we have executed the collaborator Ahmed Barhoum after he was handed over by the resistance factions," the statement said, without giving the name of the militant group that had caught him.
The family said they had listened to their relative's confession and saw the evidence against him. The Barhoums are one of Rafah's largest families and well known for their closeness to Palestinian militant groups at odds with Israel.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates the small, impoverished enclave, issued a statement praising the Barhoum family's action as illustrating "its nobleness and deep affiliation with the (anti-Israel) resistance".
