A military court in the central Gaza Strip sentenced a man to death by hanging on Wednesday, after a judge found him guilty of treason contributing to the death of a Palestinian.

A second man was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Both sentences were accepted unanimously by the military panel, but are appealable.

Under Palestinian law, the death penalty must be accepted by the president. On April 15, 2010, however, the government in Gaza executed two men that had been found guilty of collaboration with Israel.

The men were executed early in the morning, following a last visit with their families, and their bodies brought to the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The last execution given the go-ahead by the Palestinian president was in 2005. Since then, sentences have been commuted to life in prison or hard labor.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights called the executions "a grave and unjustified violation of the right to life and a form of torture and cruel and inhumane treatment," and criticized the use of the death penalty under a shaky justice system.