Israel, a day after Israel killed three of the group's top military
commanders in an airstrike on a house in southern Gaza Strip,
witnesses and a Hamas website said.
A Gaza security official said the first batch involved 11 people who
were killed early on Friday at the Gaza City police headquarters.
Six more were killed later in the day in a public execution in a
central Gaza square, according to a Hamas website and witnesses cited
by Reuters news agency.
Three suspected collaborators were also killed on Thursday.
The victims, their heads covered and hands tied, were shot dead by
masked gunmen dressed in black in front of a crowd of worshippers
outside a mosque after prayers, witnesses and al-Majd, a pro-Hamas
website, said.
The Gaza security official said the 11 men had previously been
sentenced by Gaza courts, reported the Associated Press news agency.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to
discuss the incident with reporters.
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from West Jerusalem, said
Israel's intelligence services rely, in part, on informers to pinpoint
the whereabouts of Hamas leaders.
"Israel has a long and successful history of recruiting collaborators
and informers both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, and they do
so through a variety of different means: sometimes it is financial
inducements; other times it is blackmail, bullying, threats, promises
[and] maybe intimidating family members," Rowland said.
She said that by publicising the retribution brought down on the 18
people, Hamas was sending a deterrent to other Palestinians.
Child killed
The announcement came as five Palestinians were killed by an Israeli
air strike, the latest since Egyptian-led ceasefire talks collapsed
three days ago.
Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza health official, said on Friday some of the
victims were workers at a livestock farm that was hit in the
airstrike.
The Israeli military said it carried out 20 airstrikes early on
Friday, targeting rocket launchers and weapons sites. It said a mortar
strike from Hamas critically injured one child in the Negev region
area.
Friday's fighting came as funerals were held for three senior Hamas
commanders killed by Israeli air raids.
Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, said Mohamed Abo Shamaleh,
Raed al-Attar and Mohamed Barhoum were killed in an attack in Rafah on
Thursday, little more than a day after an attempt on the life of its
leader Mohammed Deif.
The killed commanders' supporters later took over the streets as their
funeral procession snaked through Rafah, which bears scars of Israeli
bombing from previous days.
Another 31 people were killed in other Israeli strikes in Gaza since
on Thursday, raising the overall death toll to 2,087 in 46 days of
conflict.
Israel meanwhile said it was rotating 10,000 troops - meaning fresh
soldiers were being prepared for possible future operations - a day
after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel's
offensive may be an extended operation.
Hamas condemned the assasinations, with Sami Abu Zuhri, the group's
spokesman, calling them a "big Israeli crime" for which it would pay.
The fighting resumed three days ago after Egyptian attempts to broker
an end to the monthlong war, with Palestinians firing dozens of
rockets and Israel responding with airstrikes across Gaza.
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