Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has published an updated version of the so-called ‘Death Penalty for Terrorists Bill’ that would allow the Zionist state to execute Palestinian detainees accused of involvement in the 7th October 2023 Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.
In a post on X, the far-right minister published a series of new provisions and further details to the proposed death penalty bill, which is expected to go through two more readings in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), including one next week, before being passed into official law.
The bill, initiated by MP Limor Son Har Melech of the Ben Gvir-led Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, initially aimed to allow judges to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis on so-called ‘nationalistic’ grounds.
The legislation would not apply to Israelis who kill Palestinians under similar circumstances.
A new addition announced by Ben Gvir expands the draft legislation to include those accused of perpetrating attacks on 7th October 2023, who will receive the death penalty as a ‘mandatory sentence’.
The sentencing will be classified as ‘genocide under the Genocide Law’, Ben Gvir wrote, adding that the court will not be ‘bound by the prosecution’s position’.
Once a detainee has been officially accused of their involvement, they will be executed within 90 days by the Israel Prison Service (IPS).
Amongst other details outlined is the mandatory death penalty for so-called ‘terrorists’ in the occupied West Bank, with the bill authorising military courts to impose execution regardless of the prosecution’s position.
The latest draft also abolishes the requirement for a unanimous decision, noting that a regular majority of the panel judges will suffice to decide to execute a Palestinian detained under allegations of terrorism.
This would mean that judges do not need to be of high ranking within the military and that army commanders in the area do not have the ability to mitigate, commute or cancel the sentence once it is approved by a majority of judges.
Several methods have been proposed for the manner of conducting executions of Palestinians, including killing by shooting, electric chair, hanging or lethal injection.
The identity of the prison guard appointed to carry out the killing by IPS will remain confidential.
Israeli law currently allows the death penalty in certain cases, but it has not been carried out since the Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann was executed in 1962 for his role in the Holocaust.
The bill was approved in its first reading in November by a majority of 39 out of 120 Knesset members, with 16 voting against in Israel’s parliament.
Rights groups have strongly opposed the controversial bill in light of Israel’s widespread arrest of Palestinians on loose terrorism charges and a surge in reports of torture and deaths of detainees since it began its genocidal war on Gaza.
At least 9,300 Palestinians are currently reported to be held in Israeli prisons, though the real figure is likely to be higher, as Israel withholds information on hundreds of people its army seized in Gaza.
A ‘record high’ number of 110 Palestinians have died under prison policies implemented by Ben Gvir since he took office two and a half years ago.
Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups – the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club – described the bill to execute Palestinian prisoners as an ‘unprecedented act of savagery’.
The groups accused Israel of aiming to legalise the ongoing killing of prisoners through the bill, saying its approval ‘is no longer surprising in light of the unprecedented level of savagery practiced by the occupation system’.
Israeli authorities have previously charged Palestinians under the country’s terrorism legislation for their involvement in peaceful activism or humanitarian work.
Multiple international rights groups have warned that Israel’s use of such laws is often based on ‘extremely vague or unsubstantiated reasons.’
The bill would also remove the authority for a government or president to pardon anyone who has been sentenced to death for those crimes, and it does not require a panel of judges in a given case to reach a unanimous decision on the sentence.
Palestinian advocates warn that the framework eliminates the few safeguards that previously existed for Palestinian defendants.
Farid al-Atrash, director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, placed the proposed law in stark contrast to the treatment of Israelis in cases dealing with violence against Palestinians, in which they are often acquitted.
Critics say that the move to legalise the death penalty is part of a broader effort to strip Palestinians of their protections under international humanitarian law as an occupied people with a right to resistance.
‘The Israeli Knesset, dominated by the far-right, is working to turn killing into official legislation,’ said Hassan Breijieh, who is the head of the Bethlehem office of the Wall and Settlements Resistance Commission.
‘The proposed law is an attempt to erase international recognition of the Palestinian fighter… and turn him into a criminal defendant.’
Farid al-Atrash said the proposed law would punish Palestinians for struggling for their freedom.
Amjad al-Najjar, of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, agreed that the proposed law is an attempt to take away the rights of the Palestinian people.
‘It is a double crime. It is a racist law targeting Palestinians, specifically, and also a clear violation of international law.’ he said.
Saeed al-Awiwi, a Palestinian lawyer and former judge, condemned the law as the latest clampdown on Palestinian legal rights.
He pointed out that even previously permissible access to detainees in Israeli prisons has been revoked, leaving many prisoners with no meaningful legal representation, especially inside military courts.
He argued that, even before the bill, many Palestinians died inside prisons without trial, sentencing, or any due process.
If the death penalty becomes codified, the actions that caused those deaths – torture, medical neglect, and arbitrary detention – will gain official standing.
‘The move towards legal execution legalises actions already practiced by the Israeli occupation, but without accountability,’ al-Awiwi warned .
Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have condemned the bill as a form of institutionalised discrimination targeting Palestinians.
Under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, the execution of prisoners of war or protected persons – including those under occupation – is prohibited.
The proposed law would contravene that rule.
Experts said that it is part of a wider shift, from a system in which death – through torture, neglect, or violence – was an extrajudicial byproduct of occupation, to a system where death becomes a lawful sentence.
‘When the occupation criminalises the act of resistance, it is not only prosecuting the prisoner, but prosecuting the very idea of freedom itself,’ said Breijieh.
For Palestinians, the bill is therefore more than just a piece of legislation, but a benchmark in how occupied peoples are treated, and whether existing norms of international humanitarian law survive or collapse.
‘The law means the collapse of the international system,’ said al-Najjar.
‘The occupation has no legal, moral, or political right to issue death sentences against an occupied people.’
- Armed factions backed by Israel are using Gaza areas under Israeli control as bases to carry out attacks against the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, according to a report.
Under the supervision of the Israeli military, at least five anti-Hamas factions are now active within the so-called ‘yellow line,’ CNN reported on Saturday.
The yellow line is a military boundary imposed by Israel inside Gaza, used to seize territory, enforce siege conditions, and restrict Palestinian movement under the pretext of ‘security’.
In reality, it expands the occupation by force. Israel directly controls the territory east of the line, where only a few Palestinians remain, while Hamas retains authority over areas to the west.
From these Israeli-occupied zones, the militias carry out frequent ‘hit-and-run’ attacks against Hamas targets across the line.
One such group, the so-called Counter-Terrorism Strike Force (CTSF) led by Hussam Al-Astal, launches raids from a village it controls in the Israeli-occupied part of Khan Younis in southeast Gaza.
Other Israeli-backed gangs targeting Hamas include the Yasser Abu Shabab Popular Forces in the south, Ashraf al-Mansi’s Popular Army in the north, and Rami Hallas’ Popular Defence Army in central Gaza.
‘There is coordination between our groups. We have the same goals and the same ideology… We have the same aim,’ Al-Astal said, emphasising their shared objective of ‘toppling Hamas’.
These factions also aspire to govern Gaza on Israel’s behalf once the resistance is removed. Hallas described his group as part of a ‘larger project to govern Gaza on Israel’s behalf.’
Al-Astal of CTSF echoed this, saying: ‘It is a very large project, and I am a part of it… Our role will be pivotal.’
Among these militias, the most notorious is the so-called Popular Forces, once led by Daesh-linked smuggler Yasser Abu Shabab.
Israeli spy services provided Abu Shabab and his men with arms and funds, instructing them to loot aid trucks entering Gaza and falsely blame Hamas.
The group also helped Israel kill at least 40 Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels along the Israeli-controlled side of the yellow line after the October 10, 2025, ceasefire.
Hamas managed to kill Abu Shabab earlier this month, but his organisation continues to operate against the resistance.
Since Israel launched its genocidal assault on Gaza on October 7th, 2023, it has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians and wounded over 171,000 others, most of them women and children.
