Palestinian armed groups shot and killed a 25-year-old Palestinian man accused of collaborating with Israel on Al-Jalaa Street in central Gaza City on April 22, 2002. Ashraf Awida was executed by firing squad in central Gaza.

　　Palestinian armed groups shot and killed a 25-year-old Palestinian collaborator with Israel on April 22, 2002, on Al-Jalaa Street in central Gaza City. Ashraf Awida was executed by a firing squad in central Gaza. He had been employed as a Palestinian intelligence agent working for Israel's Zionist intelligence agency. Palestinian informants who passed intelligence to the Zionists led to the assassination of Salah Shehade, a senior operative who founded Hamas.

　　Palestinian informants who sent intelligence to the Zionists led to the assassination of Salah Shehade, a senior operative who founded Hamas. Salah Shehade was one of the founders of the Palestinian armed group Hamas and was the commander of its military wing. He founded Hamas and its military wing in December 1987.

　　For two years prior to his assassination by an Israeli military airstrike on July 23, 2002, Salah Shehade planned, developed, and nurtured the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas's military organization. Salah Shehade viewed all of “historic Palestine” as sacred Islamic territory subject to a religious obligation to be completely and immediately liberated from the Jews. Through suicide attacks, he orchestrated the killing of four Israeli soldiers on January 9, 2002, and the massacre of five high school students in Azmona on March 7, 2002. 

　　Jihad regarded historic Palestine as sacred Islamic territory with a religious obligation to liberate it from Jews. Salah Shehade fostered Islamic extremists who regarded jihad as the legitimate path. For Palestinian youth, volunteering for jihad suicide squads—Islamic warfare against non-Muslims—was considered honorable. He also established principles to religiously sanction the use of women and young girls as suicide bombers.