MIDDLE EAST: Gunmen from a Palestinian militant group shot dead a man suspected of collaborating with Israel in front of a crowd of hundreds of people in the West Bank city of Jenin yesterday, witnesses said.
Television pictures showed the handcuffed and blindfolded man, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, being forced to kneel in front of a mound of sand before being shot several times in the chest by at least two gunmen dressed in combat uniforms.
A crowd of several dozen people cheered and shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as the man fell backwards and died.
Witnesses said the 22-year-old man was killed by members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant group allied to Fatah, the party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
They said the man, identified as Bassem Malah, had confessed to informing on members of Islamic Jihad, another militant group, to the Israelis.
An elderly woman whose son had been killed by the Israeli army in 2002 was among several people who stepped on and kicked the lifeless body as crowds looked on, many of them taking pictures with their mobile phones.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade confirmed that some of its members had taken part in the killing. Executions have occurred in the past when suspected collaborators have been discovered.