Overview
- The Knesset’s National Security Committee approved sending the “Death Penalty for Terrorists” bill to its first reading, with a plenum vote reportedly possible as early as Wednesday.
- The draft states that a nationalistically motivated murder of an Israeli citizen would carry death as the sole punishment, and finalized sentences could not be reduced.
- Provisions include allowing military courts to impose a death sentence by a simple majority of judges rather than unanimously.
- National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir pushes to eliminate judicial discretion entirely, while security officials who now back advancing the bill say judges should retain some discretion.
- Hostages coordinator Gal Hirsch said he now supports the measure and that the prime minister backs it, as critics decry an exclusion for Israelis who kill Palestinians and warn of legal and international fallout.