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Israeli lawmakers approved a bill creating a special tribunal to try Palestinians convicted of participating in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack that ignited the war in Gaza, and the measure gives the tribunal authority to sentence convicted defendants to death.
The bill passed in the 120-seat Knesset on Monday by a vote of 93-0, according to the Associated Press. The remaining lawmakers were either absent from the vote or abstained, AP reported, as Israeli lawmakers moved to set up a process aimed at accountability for the Oct. 7 attacks.
Under the legislation, defendants can appeal death sentences, but AP said those appeals must be heard by a separate, special appeals court rather than by regular appeals courts. The measure also requires the trials to be conducted in a livestreamed Jerusalem courtroom, a feature that drew comparisons outside Israel to the 1962 televised trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
Supporters of the bill said it reflected broad political consensus in Israel. Simcha Rothman, one of the bill’s sponsors and a lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, said the overwhelming vote in the Knesset showed lawmakers could come together “around a common mission,” AP reported.
Rights groups criticized the bill, saying it would lower the threshold for applying capital punishment and remove or reduce safeguards designed to protect defendants’ right to a fair trial. Several organizations said the imperative of justice for victims of Oct. 7 should still be pursued through a process that includes those justice principles rather than abandons them, according to AP.
In its reporting, AP said opponents also raised concerns about livestreaming proceedings before guilt is established, arguing it could risk turning the trials into a spectacle. Critics also questioned the reliability of evidence that may be presented, including concerns that some information could have been obtained through harsh interrogation.
The bill is part of a wider Israeli legislative approach to punishments tied to the Oct. 7 attacks. AP said the new legislation is separate from a law passed in March that approved the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis; AP reported that the March law was widely condemned internationally and by rights groups and that it is not retroactive, so it could not apply to the Oct. 2023 suspects.
AP described the Oct. 7, 2023 attack as Hamas-led militants storming into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. AP said Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza has killed more than 72,628 Palestinians, citing the Gaza Health Ministry, and said at least 846 were killed after a ceasefire took hold last October, while noting that the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The AP report also said Israeli forces killed hundreds of militants in battles in the coastal enclave and took an unknown number of suspects into Israeli custody where they await trial. According to AP, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel said the country still holds about 1,300 Palestinians from Gaza without charge in its detention facilities, and that at least 7,000 Palestinians from Gaza had been held in Israeli custody since October 2023, with 5,000 later released. The committee’s estimate, AP said, does not include those held on suspicion of attacking Israel on Oct. 7 or involvement in holding hostages.