Israel passes death penalty law for Hamas attackers, mandates public trials

Israel’s parliament approved a sweeping new law that creates a special military tribunal in Jerusalem for Palestinians accused of taking part in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault, opening the door to death sentences for genocide convictions and mandatory filmed proceedings.

The Knesset passed the measure on Monday, May 11, 2026, by 93 votes to 0, with 27 lawmakers absent or abstaining. The law is aimed at roughly 300 attackers captured by Israeli security forces inside Israel and held in detention since the war began. It authorizes charges under Israel’s 1950 law on the prevention of genocide, as well as allegations of harming Israeli sovereignty, causing war, assisting an enemy in wartime and terrorism offenses under the 2016 counterterrorism law. Defendants convicted of genocide would be eligible for execution.

The legislation also requires the trials to be filmed and broadcast from a Jerusalem courtroom, a provision supporters cast as proof of transparency and critics see as a risk to due process. Appeals would go to a separate special appeals court rather than the regular appellate system. That design has revived comparisons to the 1962 Adolf Eichmann trial, when Israel put a Nazi war criminal on public display as a historic act of accountability.

Supporters from both coalition and opposition ranks presented the bill as a response to the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. Yulia Malinovsky of Yisrael Beytenu called the cases the trials of the “modern-day Nazis,” while Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Religious Zionism lawmaker Simcha Rothman backed the measure as a historic framework for bringing the perpetrators to justice. The law passed as Israel continued to grapple with how to prosecute detainees taken after the assault that killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages being abducted from southern Israel.

Human rights groups warned that the new tribunal weakens fair-trial protections and may permit evidence gathered through harsh interrogation or torture. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Adalah have argued that the legislation is discriminatory and risks turning criminal proceedings into a political spectacle. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination also warned that the law perpetuates racial discrimination against Palestinians and urged Israel to repeal it.

The vote came amid wider debate over capital punishment in Israel, where a broader March 2026 death-penalty law for Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks has drawn criticism for applying to Palestinians tried in military courts while Israeli citizens remain in the civilian system. Israel abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1954, and executions have been almost nonexistent since statehood, making the new tribunal a sharp test of how the country balances retribution, deterrence and the rule of law.