The Israeli military has expelled three Palestinians from the West Bank to the fenced-in Gaza Strip without charge or trial, continuing a policy condemned by human-rights groups.
Ahmed al-Mushkah, 27, from Jenin, was transported to Erez crossing on the Gaza boundary, military sources said on Sunday. "Even if Israel transfers all Palestinians, anywhere in the world, it will not help it," Mushkah told reporters upon arrival.
He said he belonged to Islamic Jihad, a group sworn to Israel's destruction and which has spearheaded suicide-bomb campaigns in a three-year-old Palestinian uprising. Military sources said Mushkah belonged to kindred Islamic group Hamas.
Two other admitted Hamas members were deported later on Sunday: 28-year-old Alla Hassuna from Nablus and 27-year-old Samer Bader from Ramallah. All three are barred from returning to the West Bank for two years, military sources said.
The militants were among 18 West Bank Palestinians slated for expulsion to Gaza for alleged complicity in armed attacks, having exhausted Supreme Court appeals against the decision. The first two on the roster were deported earlier this month.
"This transfer is a huge crime against our people," Palestinian National Security chief Major-General Abdel-Razek al-Majayda journalists.
Describing the expulsion as "residency demarcation", a military source said the move was a preventive measure taken against Palestinians who could not be put on trial for fear of exposing intelligence sources who provided information on them.
Palestinians and international human-rights groups have censured such measures in the past as violations of international law. Last year, Israel deported to Gaza two Palestinians accused of helping a suicide bomber.