The Hamas-run government in Gaza on Tuesday offered a temporary amnesty to drug dealers who turn themselves in and supply information about the illicit trade. "The interior ministry wants to give the opportunity to those wishing to repent from dealing drugs," ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein said in a statement, vowing to arrest those who ignore the offer.
"This opportunity is available to all, but not forever," he added. The announcement came almost a month after Hamas replaced an Israeli military ordinance governing drug crimes with an older Egyptian law that allows for the execution of convicted dealers. Egypt administered the Gaza Strip from 1948 until 1967, when Israel seized the territory in the Six Day War along with the Sinai peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.