GATESTONE INSTITUTE
by Khaled Abu Toameh
August 8, 2014
Militiamen on Thursday dumped the bullet-riddled body of Ayman Taha, a former prominent Hamas figure, outside Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. The body remained on the ground for nearly an hour before other militiamen came back and took it to an unknown destination. Palestinians who were at the hospital were too afraid to remove the body. A few hours later, Taha’s body was handed over to Shifa Hospital by a number of Hamas militiamen.
Palestinian journalists said that Taha had been executed for spying on behalf of an Arab intelligence service and involvement in financial corruption. According to the journalists, Taha was executed by a firing squad three days ago…..Sources in the Gaza Strip said on Thursday that Taha was executed because Hamas feared he might implicate some of its leaders in many corruption scandals. “The man knew too much about the senior leaders of Hamas,” said a veteran journalist living in Gaza City who had close ties with Taha. “Hamas leaders used to take him with them on their visits to different countries.” Hamas has never denied that Taha was being held in custody. Shortly after his arrest, Hamas announced that Taha was being interrogated over his “behavior and exploitation of his influence to gain illegal profit.”
Although Hamas never named the Arab intelligence party to which Taha was allegedly linked, Palestinians familiar with the case have pointed at Egypt’s General Intelligence Service as being responsible for the recruitment of the slain Hamas figure……What was even more embarrassing was that the slain man was the son of Mohammed Taha, one of the most prominent leaders of Hamas and former director of the Islamic University in Gaza City. Interestingly, Taha was executed for collaboration with the Egyptians exactly at the same time that senior representatives of Hamas were negotiating in Cairo with the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service about ways of achieving a permanent cease-fire with Israel.
…..In fact, some Hamas officials are now seeking to shift the blame toward Israel. Shortly after Palestinian journalists reported the execution, Hamas published a brief statement “mourning” the death of Taha, who it claimed was “martyred” during an Israeli air strike on an apartment in Gaza City……
ArchitectGuy on Israel 