Palestinian family shoot dead relative believed to be spying for Israel

Ahmed Barhoum accused of providing intelligence that lead to the deaths of three militants

An air strike on Rafah in 2016. The family says the intelligence Ahmed Barhoum provided lead to the deaths of three Hamas militants in 2014 (Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian man has been killed by his family in Gaza after he was found to be providing information to Israeli security forces, according to a statement released by the family.

Relatives of Ahmed Barhoum said they shot him in the city of Rafah after being told by the Hamas militant group that he had been spying for Israel.

They said Mr Barhoum's information was used in an Israeli air strike during the 2014 Gaza war which killed three Hamas militants – including Mr Barhoum’s own kinsman.

The family statement said members had seen evidence against Mr Barhoum and heard his confession.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates Gaza and is at odds with the Fatah Movement which dominates the West Bank, issued a statement praising the Barhoum family's action as illustrating “its nobleness and deep affiliation with the (anti-Israel) resistance”.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

Hamas has sentenced 109 people to death and executed at least 25 in Gaza since 2007. Palestinian and international human rights groups have repeatedly condemned such use of the death penalty, and urged Hamas and its Western-backed rival based in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority, to abolish it.

Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, leading to a Hamas takeover two years later, but continues to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The takeover led to a brief war between Hamas and Fatah and to the blockade of Gaza by the Israeli navy which continues to this day.

Relations between Israel and the Palestinians has been particularly tense over the past month after US President Donald Trump announced he was moving the country’s embassy to Jerusalem – a de facto acknowledgement of the city as Israel’s capital.

Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem is its “eternal capital” but the Palestinians say East Jerusalem, which was captured by the Israeli Defence Force during the Six Days War in 1967, is their capital.

The majority of the international community say the status of Jerusalem, one of the most contentious areas of conflict between the two sides, while be determined at the latter stages of the peace process and as result have their embassies in Tel Aviv.

Additional reporting by agencies