There once was a Hamashole called Taha,
To whom you should say Sayonara,
He was considered a spy
Hence worthy to die
He’s now pretty low grade fertilizer
Militiamen on Thursday dumped the bullet-riddled body of Ayman Taha, a former prominent Hamas figure, outside Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
The body remained on the ground for nearly an hour before other militiamen came back and took it to an unknown destination.
Palestinians who were at the hospital were too afraid to remove the body.
A few hours later, Taha’s body was handed over to Shifa Hospital by a number of Hamas militiamen.
Palestinian journalists said that Taha had been executed for spying on behalf of an Arab intelligence service and involvement in financial corruption.
According to the journalists, Taha was executed by a firing squad three days ago. They said that he died instantly of gunshots to the head and chest.
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But what is even more interesting – although not surprising – about the Taha affair is Hamas’s attempt to distance itself from any responsibility for his death.
In fact, some Hamas officials are now seeking to shift the blame toward Israel.
Shortly after Palestinian journalists reported the execution, Hamas published a brief statement “mourning” the death of Taha, who it claimed was “martyred” during an Israeli air strike on an apartment in Gaza City.
Hamas had no explanation, of course, as to why the man had been hit in the head and chest by bullets that were apparently fired from close range.
The attempt to blame Israel is seen in the context of the movement’s effort to prevent retaliatory attacks by Taha’s powerful clan. The family had previously denounced the arrest of its son and called for his immediate release.
Taha is not the only Palestinian to be killed by Hamas in the past few weeks. According to various reports, Hamas has executed several Palestinians on suspicion of “collaboration” with Israel since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Yet Hamas has not officially admitted that it carried out these executions, as is the case with its former top representative, Ayman Taha. Hamas is also unlikely to ever admit that its men killed any Palestinian during the past few weeks. Instead, Hamas will add the people it has murdered to the list of “casualties of Israeli aggression.”
Ayman Taha, we hardly knew you.
Good.
