Ref: 70/2022Date: 06 June 2022Time: 10:00 GMT On Sunday, 05 June 2022, the Military Court of the Military Judiciary in Gaza City issued a death sentence by hanging against (H. R.) (62) after convicting him of collaborating with hostile entities.The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) emphasizes full condemnation of  collaboration and affirms the importance of prosecuting its perpetrators for being involved in crimes committed by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in Palestine. In the meantime, PCHR reiterates that death penalty is not the only mean to achieve justice or deter such crimes; rather, it is an inhumane way that conflicts with Palestine’s international legal obligations under the 1989 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.PCHR denounces referring civilians to appear before the Military Judiciary regardless of any justifications and stresses that every citizen has the right to appear before his natural judge according to Article (30) of the 2003 Palestinian Basic Law.Accordingly, the death sentences issued in 2022 in Gaza rise to eleven, and two sentences issued in affirmation of former death sentences. The total number of death sentences issued in the Palestinian territory since 1994 reached 263; 30 in the West Bank and 233 in the Gaza Strip. Among those issued in the Gaza Strip, 174 sentences were issued after the 2007 Palestinian political division.Since the establishment of the PA in 1994, 41 death sentences were executed: 39 in the Gaza Strip, and two in the West Bank. Of those executed in the Gaza Strip, 28 were conducted without the ratification of the Palestinian President in violation of Palestinian law. In this context, PCHR stresses the need to refrain from ratifying death sentences in a prelude to abolishing this punishment from the Palestinian legislations.PCHR reminds the authorities that the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is biding to Palestine, including the Gaza Strip. Therefore, PCHR calls on the authorities in the Gaza Strip not to use the death penalty and replace it with a life sentence with hard labor.PCHR also calls upon the Palestinian President to issue a law by decree to suspend the use of legal articles related to the death penalty in the Palestinian that conflict with Palestine’s obligations under the ICCPR Protocol aiming at abolishing the death penalty.