Hamas lawmakers have passed an education law that reflected the Islamic movement's philosophy in terms of gender and ties to Israel.

The law would take effect at the beginning of the new school year in September and would apply only in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has been holding sway since routing forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of the secularist Fatah party in 2007.

The new rule boosts separation between the two sexes in schools and goes further to what it calls "feminizing girls' schools," which stands for excluding male staffers from female schools.

With the gender issue, the law sparked a controversy and deepened doubts that Hamas is steadily imposing an Islamic hue on the society, where the traditionally-conservative 1.7 million population endure the outcomes of an Israeli economic blockade that is meant to isolate the militant Hamas group.

Hamas, which doesn't recognize Israel, stressed in the new law that any kind of normalization with Israel through curriculum and student exchange programs or by promoting such activities would be punished. The 60-article law promises imprisonment of up to 10 years if an individual is engaged in such activities and a fine of 20,000 Jordanian Dinar (28,200 US dollars) against educational institutions involved in normalization. The organizations or individuals who receive aid with the goal of normalization would also be accountable.

Hamas lawmakers who convene in Gaza passed the law two weeks ago and declared it this week. The law is binding for schools run by government, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the private ones.

Walid Mezher, the legal adviser of the Ministry of Education, said the new rules constitute "the first Palestinian education law, annulling the Egyptian one that had been applied in Gaza since 1933."

In its fifth article, the law says that the educational system is meant to "prepare the student to be of a national personality and committed to the Palestinian, Arabic and Islamic culture." It also aims at "nurturing the student on faith in Allah and glorifying his religious, homeland and Palestine with its historic borders."

Mezher admits that the law gives an Islamic color to the Palestinian society, saying that the Palestinians are Muslim people "and it's natural that the regulations would be affected by the customs and traditions." However, the law allows a few Christian schools in Gaza to teach non-Muslim students topics related to their religion.

The law asserts separation between boys and girls after the age of nine. This already happens in all government and UNRWA schools.

Mahmoud Al-Hemdiat, the UNRWA's education program director, said that the international agency abides by the Palestinian people customs in educating about 250,000 students of the refugees ' descendants.

However, he implicitly criticized what he calls "stimulating conflicts by interjecting political matters in the educational process," referring to the usage of Palestine's historic borders in the curriculum," which erases Israel and puts the UNRWA in trouble with the Jewish lobby in the United States.

Meanwhile, several principals of private schools told Xinhua that they strongly oppose the law when it comes to banning girls and boys from being taught together.

They say that the law mainly targets the private schools since implementing it would require these schools to allocate new classes and teachers beyond their capacity.

Rights groups have also criticized the law, especially as it puts the people's culture under the power of law. "This law is based on a misleading interpretation of the virtue and harms the general freedoms of people," said Issam Younis of the Gaza-based Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.