In Palestinian areas three types of legislation are applied.

In Palestinian areas three types of legislation are applied. In the West Bank the law of Jordan is enforced, which provides for the death penalty in cases of high treason and murder. Gaza Strip is under Egyptian law that imposes the death penalty for the disturbance of internal order. There is also the Palestinian Authority (PA) law that is fairly flexible concerning capital punishment.
Article 327 of the Palestinian National Authority Criminal Procedure Law #3 2001 requires the submission of an appeal in all cases in which the death penalty or a life prison term has been handed down. The appeal must be submitted to the appeals court in Gaza city within 15 days of the decision. If the appeal is rejected, the death sentence must then be ratified by the President of the Palestinian National Authority in order for it to be implemented.
The PA - established in Gaza in 1994 and in 1995 in the West Bank - set up the State Security Courts, a special institution with jurisdiction over security offences, in February 1995. Since then these courts sentenced 149 Palestinians to various penalties - often after trials lasting only a few hours - including 30 to death. Four of these were subsequently executed. These courts were dismantled on July 27, 2003. The Minister of Justice, Abdul Karim Abu Salah, issued a decree completely abolishing the State Security Courts and relative prosecution procedures, transferring their authority to regular courts and the Attorney-General. The courts had been strongly criticized by the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group that accused them of not respecting minimum standards for a fair trial. Before being done away with, the State Security Courts had sentenced two people to death in 2003 for collaborating with Israel. In 2002, 11 people got death sentences for collaboration with Israel.
Since the National Palestinian Authority was instituted in 1994, fourteen Palestinians have been 'legally' executed.
Convicted or suspected collaborators have been killed by Palestinian militants more often than by official police death squads. Armed and masked activists have broken into private homes, police stations, jails and even courts to get at the alleged or convicted collaborators. According to the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG), 19 Palestinians were summarily executed in this way in 2004. Another 7 Palestinians suffered similar fates up to September 15, 2005. The last to die of these was Muhammad Mahmoud Samwalha on July 18, 2005. He was kidnapped and then burned to death, PHRMG said.
The PA carried out its first execution on August 30, 1998. Two brothers, Raed and Muhammad Abu Sultan, members of the Palestinian military intelligence, were executed by firing squad in Gaza City after receiving a summary and unfair trial before a special military court, only three days after they were charged with committing two killings.
In 2003, four people in all were condemned to death, but no executions were carried out. In 2004, for the second year running, no executions were carried out in Palestine. Three of the eight death sentences passed by PA courts in 2004 were on charges of collaboration with Israel. In 2002, three people were shot to death, all for murder. The two executions registered in 2001 were both on charges of collaboration with Israel.
In 2005, five people had been put to death by the PA authorities up to September 15. Four men all convicted of murder were executed on June 12, 2005. A fifth man was also executed for murder on July 27, 2005. Ten days after the executions and following international criticism, on June 22, 2005, Abbas asked his justice minister to annul court verdicts against dozens of Palestinians, including some convicted of collaborating with Israel. Abbas’s chief of staff Rafiq Husseini said the president wanted new trials for Palestinians convicted by security courts, including at least 10 sentenced to death.