Majdi Makawi was shot dead by a firing squad in the courtyard of Gaza's police headquarters at 11.13 a.m. on Saturday. Convicted by a Palestinian military tribunal of helping Israel track down and assassinate four Palestinian militiamen, including his own nephew, a bewildered Makawi (28) was led to a wooden post, tied firmly to it so that his body wouldn't slump to the ground and had the court's sentence read out to him by the Palestinian Authority's attorney-general, Mr Khaled Qidreh.
His head was stuck to the post with black tape. Then a black sack was placed over his face, and the nine policemen, masked and wearing combat fatigues, opened fire. One of the nine approached the motionless figure and fired a final shot. The firing squad then jogged, in formation, out of the compound.
As the gunfire rang out, hundreds of Palestinians who had gathered outside the compound cheered. A cry of Allahu Akbar (God is great) went up.
"We are very happy", declared Mr Ahmad Abdel Razak, a relative of both Makawi and of one of the Fatah activists he was convicted of helping Israel assassinate, Jamal Abdel Razek. Indeed, Mr Ahmad said, his happiness was marred only by the fact that "I was hoping to have the honour of shooting him".
The execution was shown on television last night. Makawi was the first "collaborator with Israel" to have been put to death by the Palestinian Authority. Its military tribunals have ordered executions for several people convicted of other offences in recent years.
Also on Saturday, in the West Bank city of Nablus, a second collaborator, Alam Bani Odeh, was put to death, minutes after taking tearful leave of his wife and three-year-old daughter. He too was convicted of helping Israel kill a relative, Ibrahim Bani Odeh, an alleged Islamic activist and bomb-maker who was blown up in a booby-trapped car. Later the same day, a tribunal in Bethlehem sentenced two more collaborators to death by firing squad, and further such sentences were issued in Bethlehem and Nablus yesterday. All must be personally approved by Mr Arafat before being carried out. A dozen more such sentences are imminent, said the Palestinian justice minister, Mr Freih Abu Medein. Palestinian officials retorted that Israel had effectively prompted the executions by tracking down and assassinating alleged leaders of the ongoing al-Aqsa Intifada. The officials claim Israel has killed 18 people in this way in recent weeks; Israeli sources suggest the number is slightly lower but do not deny the policy. Indeed, it has been championed by Israel's deputy defence minister, Mr Ephraim Sneh, as the most effective means of countering Intifada violence without, he says, harming innocent Palestinians.
The executions stood in somewhat surreal contrast to a continuing series of meetings between Israeli and Palestinian security officials over the weekend, and to the first serious peace talks in weeks between Mr Arafat and a top Israeli official, the former prime minister, Mr Shimon Peres. This meeting was described by both sides as "serious" but unproductive.
The body of an Israeli settler has been found in a Palestinian-controlled area. Mr Roni Tzalah went missing in the Gaza Strip last night. A spokesman for Jewish settlements in the area said the man, whose car, like many used by settlers, was equipped with a satellite tracking device, was 600 meters inside Palestinian-controlled territory near the town of Khan Younis.
Witnesses said the Israeli army had cut off the main road to Khan Younis and a military helicopter fired flares during the night-time search.