Collaborators arrested in Gaza

The security services in the Gaza Strip have announced the arrest of a number of Palestinians suspected of collaborating with the Israeli occupation, Almajd.ps reported on Monday. The arrests were made as part of a security sweep across the besieged territory in the wake of the killing of released prisoner Mazen Fuqaha by unknown assassins. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has blamed Israel for the assassination and pledged to find the collaborators involved.

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The specialist security website said that the campaign— codenamed “Cutting enemy wings in Gaza” — started on Monday afternoon and will continue despite these arrests. It did not give any details of when it is expected to end. The interior ministry in Gaza announced last week that it is going to tighten all security measures related to tracking collaborators.

It is understood that those who are accused of being collaborators will be given time to repent before their identities are made known to the public. This, say sources close to the security services, will give them the chance to be rehabilitated and reintegrated in society without any humiliating and potentially damaging publicity. Repentance will also lead to a more lenient sentence, it was revealed. Similar campaigns in the past have seen dozens of collaborators announce their repentance and placed back in society.