The Hamas-run government in Gaza is introducing a law that will allow execution of drug dealers, AFP reports.

Attorney-general Mohammed Abed said the government is cancelling the existing (Israeli) drug law and replacing it with an Egyptian law from 1962.

"The latter law is more comprehensive in terms of crime and criminals and the penalties more advanced [sic], including life sentences and execution," Abed said.

"The Zionist law included light punishments that encouraged rather than deterred those who take and trade in drugs, and there is no objective, national or moral justification for continuing to apply it."

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 1 December 2009.