Israeli parliament advances bill to impose death penalty for Palestinians

Israel’s public broadcaster KAN said the bill passed the first reading late Monday with the backing of 19 lawmakers, with no votes cast against it during the session.

The proposed legislation seeks to create a special judicial mechanism to prosecute hundreds of Palestinians accused of taking part in the Oct. 7 events, which Israeli officials have repeatedly described as the most serious security failure in the country’s history.

The bill was introduced through a joint initiative by Justice Minister Yariv Levin of the ruling Likud party, Constitution Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman of the far-right Religious Zionism party, and Yisrael Beiteinu lawmaker Yulia Malinovsky, according to the broadcaster.

Under the draft, a dedicated court would be established and chaired by a retired district court judge, with broad authority to hear cases involving charges such as genocide, harming state sovereignty, aiding the enemy during wartime, and terrorism-related offenses.

The legislation explicitly allows for capital punishment upon conviction and bars defendants tried under this framework from being included in any future political negotiations or prisoner exchange agreements.

It also mandates that court hearings be broadcast live on a designated website and preserved in Israel’s state archives.

The bill will now be referred to the Knesset’s Constitution Committee for further review ahead of its second and third readings. Under Israeli law, legislation must pass three readings to become binding.

Israeli authorities have not released official figures on the number of Palestinians detained in connection with the Oct. 7 events, though Israeli media estimates put the number in the thousands.

More than 71,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and over 171,000 others injured in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 in a brutal Israeli war that has left the enclave in ruins.