Israel’s parliament has advanced a dangerous bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinian detainees to its final vote, after the Knesset’s national security committee approved the measure on Tuesday, paving the way for the legislation to move to its second and third readings in the Israeli parliament before a final vote.
With hanging described as “one of the options” for implementing the death penalty, the alternatives could include the electric chair or “euthanasia”. The move has received support from doctors willing to participate in executions, according to Israeli far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, saying they had told him: “Just tell us when.”
Israel holds more than 9500 of Palestinians in its prisons, according to prisoner groups. Hundreds of those detainees could be subject to the death penalty if the law is implemented.f
Here’s Everything You Need to Know
What does it say? The bill would allow Israeli courts to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israeli settlers on "nationalistic grounds" without a request from prosecutors, and without requiring unanimity, instead permitting a simple majority decision.
The bill stipulates "the death penalty for anyone who intentionally or negligently causes the death of an Israeli citizen out of racist or hateful motives and to harm Israel."
Under the proposal, those sentenced to death would be held in a separate facility with no visits except from authorised personnel, with legal consultations conducted only by video link.
Executions would be carried out within 90 days of sentencing. The committee made some amendments to the bill, which passed its first vote, Israel’s public broadcaster KAN reported, adding that executions would be carried out through hanging.
Does it apply to Israelis who kill Palestinians under similar circumstances? No
When asked whether the law would apply to Israeli settlers, MK Limor Son Har-Melech, who sponsored the bill, said that "there's no such thing as a Jewish terrorist". Israel formally abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. In practice, however, Israel has carried out only one execution in its history: that of Adolf Eichmann, a principal architect of the Holocaust, in 1962.
Origin: The proposal was tabled by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's far-right Jewish Power party. The bill has been promoted by far-right Israeli parties since before the genocide in Gaza began in October 2023, with renewed calls for its passage in recent months.
It was initiated by Har-Melech from Otzma Yehudit, with an identical proposal submitted by Yisrael Beiteinu's MK Oded Forer.
Ben-Gvir described hanging as “one of the options”for implementing the death penalty, adding that alternatives could include the electric chair or “euthanasia”. He also claimed to have received support from doctors willing to participate in executions, saying they had told him: “Just tell us when.”
Defending the bill, Har-Melech insisted that it is “very clear and unequivocal".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the green light for the bill to move forward, according to Prisoners and Missing Persons Coordinator Gal Hirsch who added that the bill was "a tool in the toolbox that allows us to fight terror and secure the release of hostages.”
“Unprecedented Act of Savagery”
The bill to execute Palestinians has been widely slammed by Palestinians.
Hamas condemned the move, saying the bill "embodies the ugly fascist face of the rogue Zionist occupation".
It called for "the formation of international committees to enter Israeli prisons and examine the conditions of Palestinian detainees".
The Palestinian Center for Prisoners' Advocacy, a Gaza-based NGO, said the bill "constitutes an Israeli war crime" and warned of its repercussions.
"The consequences of this fascist measure will be even more violent, dragging the entire region into a new cycle of chaos whose outcome no one can predict," the rights group added.
Palestinian prisoners' rights groups - the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS)- described the bill to execute Palestinian prisoners as an “unprecedented act of savagery”.
The groups said in their statement in late September that the latest bill aims to legalise the ongoing killing of prisoners, saying its approval "is no longer surprising in light of the unprecedented level of savagery practised by the occupation system."
"The occupation has not been content with killing dozens of prisoners and detainees since the war of extermination began. Today, it seeks to entrench the crime of execution by enacting a specific law for it," the groups said in a joint statement.
"This law is an addition to a repressive legislative system that, for decades, has targeted all aspects of Palestinian life. It is another step to entrench the crime and attempt to legitimise it."
Abdullah al-Zaghari, director of the PPS, said Israel’s decision “would amount to a war crime.”
The PPS noted that Israel “has never stopped carrying out extrajudicial executions of Palestinians, whether through deliberate killings during arrest or interrogation, assassinations, or lethal medical negligence.”
Palestinian journalist and ex-prisoner Lama Khater wrote, “Legalizing the killing of Palestinian detainees would mean that anyone held in Israel’s prisons could become a target for assassination, not only those accused of carrying out resistance operations.”
She added, “This policy fits the “New Israel,” which no longer needs an excuse to kill and appears to favor extermination, and it turns Palestinian life into a living hell both inside and outside its prisons.”
Ibrahim Najajra, the Director of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs in Hebron, told Quds News Network that the law is considered dangerous because it “criminalizes Palestinian resistance, denies Palestinians their political rights, and legitimizes the occupation.”
Violation of the International Law
Moreover, the Israeli occupation authorities do not apply it to those who kill Palestinians, Najajra added. He noted that countries around the world condemn execution laws, which are prohibited under international law.
“The Israeli government seeks to exert more force and pressure on Palestinians. These measures also constitute a denial of the Oslo Accords,” Najajra said.
He added that all measures against Palestinian detainees introduced by the current Israeli far-right government after it took office three years ago were a violation of international law.
Najajra said the law also constitutes “apartheid legislation” because it differentiates between Palestinians and Israelis as an Israeli settler or soldier who kills a Palestinian is not subject to this law, describing the law as a “clear discrimination in punishment against Palestinians.”
He said the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly guarantees Red Cross visits, access to medical care, adequate food and family visits. However, Najajra said this law prevents the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting detainees, as well as restricting lawyers’ visits until the late stages of proceedings.
“Israel has exploited the events of 7 October 2023 to disregard these obligations, while the world remains silent,” he added.
Already Living in Hell
Palestinian prisoner groups estimated that over 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli jails since the Israeli genocide in Gaza began in Ocotber 2023, “in the “bloodiest stage in the history of the prisoner movement.”
In a report published last November, Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI) said Israeli military prisons are responsible for at least 52 of the deaths, while the remaining 42 were documented in facilities run by the IPS. Data obtained by PHRI reveals that at least 68 hostages from Gaza died in Israeli custody up until the end of August.
As part of the Gaza ceasefire deal with effect on October 10, about 340 Palestinian bodies have been released by Israel. The bodies showed clear signs of torture and abuse.
Israeli occupation authorities have been accused of torturing Palestinian detainees. This includes being handcuffed and shackled 24 hours a day, seven days a week – even while sleeping, eating, and using the restroom.
Testimonies also describe regular beatings by guards, extreme overcrowding, humiliation, and inadequate hygiene.
An Israeli reserve soldier exposed lately shocking abuses at Israel’s infamous Sde Teiman military base, describing it as a “sadistic torture site” where dozens of Palestinian detainees from Gaza died under brutal conditions.
The soldier described Sde Teiman as a place where “people enter alive and leave in body bags.”
He said the death of detainees was no longer surprising. “The real surprise,” he added, “is if someone survives.”
He stated that Israeli occupation authorities oversee systematic abuse.
According to his account, Palestinian detainees suffered starvation, untreated war wounds, and denial of basic hygiene needs. “Some urinated and defecated on themselves because they weren’t allowed to use the bathroom,” he said.
In August 2024, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israeli occupation authorities of systematically abusing Palestinians in “torture camps”, subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault. The report, titled “Welcome to Hell”, is based on 55 testimonies from former detainees, the majority of whom were held without trial.
According to the Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies, more than half of the Palestinian detainees who have died since October 2023, were killed primarily as a result of torture and abuse.
Due to the sharp rise in arrests, particularly among Gazans, Israel has opened new detention and interrogation centers operated directly by its military. According to the center, these facilities have become sites of “systematic torture and mistreatment, in clear violation of international law and human rights.”
Many hostages from Gaza have been subjected to forced disappearance and held incommunicado under inhumane conditions, creating an environment where extrajudicial killings can occur without oversight or accountability, the center added.
In addition to torture, the center documented over 30 deaths resulting from medical negligence. Israel is reported to routinely deny detainees access to basic medical care, holding them in unsanitary, disease-ridden conditions and delaying or outright refusing necessary treatment for extended periods.
In many cases, detainees are only transferred to hospitals when they are on the brink of death.
Recently-released Palestinians: What They Say?
The freed Palestinians said they were beaten and humiliated, describing the Israeli prisons they were held in as “slaughterhouses”.
Al Jazeera correspondent Ibrahim al-Khalili’s brother, Mohammed, who was held for more than 19 months without charge, described his ordeal as a “big struggle”.
“We were beaten and humiliated. We suffered a lot. But thank God, it’s all over now,” al-Khalili said.
Abdallah Abu Rafe described his release as a “great feeling”. “We were in a slaughterhouse, not a prison. Unfortunately, we were in a slaughterhouse called the Ofer prison. Many young men are still there. The situation in the Israeli prisons is very difficult. There are no mattresses. They always take the mattresses away. The food situation is difficult. Things are difficult there,” he said.
Another released detainee, Yasin Abu Amra, described conditions in Israeli jails as “very, very bad”.
“In terms of the food, the oppression, and the beatings, everything was bad. There was no food or drink. I hadn’t eaten for four days. They gave me two sweets here, and I ate them,” he said.
Saed Shubair, who was also freed on Monday, said he did not know how to describe his feelings.
“The feeling is indescribable,” he said. “Seeing the sun without bars is an indescribable feeling. My hands are free from the handcuffs. Freedom is priceless.”
“It’s an indescribable feeling, a new birth,” said Mahdi Ramadan, flanked by his parents after his release from prison.
Palestinian journalist prisoner Shadi Abu Seed has given a harrowing account of life inside an Israeli prison after his release.
“I went hungry for the past two years. I swear to God, they didn’t feed us. They kept us naked. They beat us while we were naked day and night. We were tortured,” Abu Seed said.
“Until our last day in Israeli prison, they cut us and hit us and abused us. We endured every kind of torture, emotional and physical.”
“We couldn’t even sleep. They threatened us with our children. They told me they killed my children. They told us that Gaza was destroyed. I arrived here and found that everything was gone. It looked like the end of the world. Everything is different.”
“He’s been locked up for 24 years,” said a relative of Saber Masalma, who was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison. “He looks like a dead body. But we will bring him back to life,” he said.
According to Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups, every time prisoners are released, the prisoners’ bodies reflect the level of crimes committed against them.
According to Najajra, this torture is “unprecedented” in its level after October 7, including “starvation crimes and systematic medical crimes.”
Signs of Severe Torture on Bodies
Most of the freed bodies as part of the ceasefire also remain unidentified.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the bodies, dozens of which have yet to be formally identified, showed “conclusive evidence of field executions and brutal torture”.
It said the bodies showed signs of:
- Hanging and rope marks on the necks of several bodies
- Direct gunfire at close range, “confirming deliberate field executions”
- Hands and feet being bound with plastic restraints
- Eyes being blindfolded
- Being crushed under Israeli tank tracks
- Fractures, burns and deep wounds, indicating “severe physical torture”
“We call for the urgent establishment of an independent international commission of inquiry to investigate these heinous crimes and to hold Israeli leaders accountable for the war crimes committed against our people in the Gaza Strip,” the Office said.
Dr. Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office, said Israeli occupation forces also stole organs from the bodies of Palestinian detainees returned to Gaza.
He said dozens of bodies were found mutilated and missing vital parts, including eyes, limbs, and internal organs.
“When we examined the bodies, we found that large parts were missing, there were half bodies, bodies without heads, without limbs, without eyes, and without internal organs.”
Mohammed Zaqout, director of hospitals in Gaza’s Health Ministry, has spoken about the “clear signs of torture” found on the bodies of Palestinians that were returned to the Gaza Strip.
“One body shows signs of hanging with a rope still wrapped around the neck, blindfolds around the eyes and bound hands. That martyr was placed as is and sent to us,” Zaqout added.
What About Rights Groups?
According to Yuli Novak, the executive director of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, “Israel is already killing Palestinians on a regular basis – in detention facilities, and in the field, where lethal force is widely used by Israeli settlers and by the military with close to zero accountability."
"This law is another tool in this toolbox.’’
UN experts last month urged Israel to withdraw the bill, saying it “would violate the right to life and discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
“By removing judicial and prosecutorial discretion, they prevent a court from considering the individual circumstances, including mitigating factors, and from imposing a proportionate sentence that fits the crime,” the experts said. “Hanging amounts to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment under international law.”
The European Union’s diplomatic service also condemned the bill, saying: The death penalty is a violation of the right to life and cannot be executed without violation of the absolute right to be free from torture and other ill-treatment.”
Amnesty International also called on Israel to abandon the law, warning that the measures would violate international law and “further entrench Israel’s apartheid system” against Palestinians.
“These amendments mean that the most extreme and irrevocable punishment is being reserved for, and weaponised against, Palestinians,” it said.
“If adopted, these bills would distance Israel from the vast majority of states which have rejected the death penalty in law or in practice, while further entrenching its cruel system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights Israel controls.”
