GAZA: HAMAS 'EXECUTES THREE FOR MURDER'

the Palestinian movement Hamas executed three men convicted of murder in its Gaza enclave, the interior ministry said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear how the three were killed.
Hamdi Shaqura, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, identified the three men as Rami Joha, 25, Mattar al-Shobaki, 35, and Amer Jandiya, 33. He said Joha was sentenced to death by a civilian court in April 2004 for gang-raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl. Shobaki was sentenced by a civilian court, in 1996, for the murder of another man. Jandiya, was sentenced by a Hamas-run military court in March 2009 for the murder of a money changer.
"The interior ministry this morning carried out the death penalty on three criminals who had committed murders after completing all legal procedures," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the three had been given "every right to defend themselves in open trials attended by their lawyers and family members."
It also said that it granted the opportunity for the families of the victims to forgive the killers and accept blood money, in keeping with Islamic law, "until moments before the death sentence was carried out."