Over the years, there have been several attempts to revive capital punishment in Israel, but they didn’t get very far. Until now. Last week, on March 25, 2026, the parliamentary committee approved the final version of the ‘Penal Bill (Amendment – Death Penalty for Terrorists)’. As early as this week, the amended bill could go through a second and third reading in the Knesset to become law.

The death penalty exists in Israel for war crimes. It was abolished in 1954 for ordinary crimes and in peace time, but technically it remains permissible for crimes against humanity or against the Jewish people, as well as under certain circumstances under martial law.

On the rare occasions they were handed down in military courts on terrorism-related offenses, all were commuted to life sentences following appeals.

However, in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, there has been a new push by Israeli lawmakers to pass a highly controversial law re-establishing the death penalty for Palestinians convicted by Israeli military and criminal courts. Proponents of the bill argue that harsher punishment is necessary after the October 7 attacks, and that the mood among parts of the Israeli public has shifted accordingly.

The current far-right government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the necessary votes to pass the bill. Opponents of the bill argue it is unethical, unconstitutional and racist, discriminating between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians.

The draft bill already passed its first reading in November 2025 in Israel’s Knesset. It was then returned to the National Security Committee for further deliberations and revisions. More than 2,000 reservations were filed against the legislation, mostly by opposition lawmakers and the legal advisor of the committee, the Times of Israel reported.

Since the establishment of Israel, only two people have been executed following convictions carrying the death penalty. The first execution took place in 1948 when Meir Tobianski, an army officer, was falsely accused of espionage, and executed for treason. He was posthumously exonerated. The second time was in 1962 when Israel executed Adolf Eichmann, a leading figure in Germany’s Nazi Party, after a lengthy trial in Jerusalem.

What’s in death penalty bill?

The proposed bill significantly lowers the threshold for imposing the death penalty. According to the wording of the amended bill, its purpose is to ‘establish the death penalty for terrorists who carried out murderous terror attacks, as part of the fight against terrorism’. It further states that ‘a person who intentionally causes the death of another with the aim of harming a citizen or resident of Israel, with the intent of rejecting the existence of the State of Israel – his sentence shall be death or life imprisonment, and only one of these penalties’.

The bill has two different tracks relating to trials in criminal courts in Israel and in military courts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The latter are under Israeli military administration and exclusively try Palestinians living there under military law.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank accused of terrorism who are tried in military courts would face a mandatory death sentence or, in the wording of the bill ‘… his sentence shall be death, and this penalty only’. Only if the court determines that there are ‘special reasons’ could it then commute the death sentence to life in prison – which would be a reversal of the de facto common conduct in the military courts today. It would also no longer require a consensus among all the judges. A simple majority will suffice for the judges, and avenues for appeal will be extremely limited.

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, said in a statement that ‘these military courts have an approximately 96% conviction rate, based largely on ‘confessions’ extracted under duress and torture during interrogations’.

The Knesset’s committee’s own legal advisor Ido Ben-Itzhak criticised the bill, arguing that the amendment ‘does not provide for the pardon of a person sentenced to death, which contradicts international conventions and could lead to complications’, he said.

Implementation of the bill

This bill won’t be applied retroactively or applied to alleged perpetrators of the October 7 attacks, although proponents of the bill have tried to link the issue.

However, in parallel, a separate bill may be brought to a vote in the Knesset at the same time. The so-called Tribunals Law (‘Prosecution of Participants in the October 7 Massacre Events Bill’) would establish a special military tribunal which would impose capital punishment on individuals indicted for participation in the October 7 attacks.

The Israel Prison Service (IPS) will be required to carry out the death sentence within 90 days. According to the bill, the prime minister can apply to the court that handed down the sentence to delay the execution by no more than 180 days. The execution, by hanging, will be undertaken by a prison service corrections officer.

Who is behind the bill?

It is sponsored by lawmakers of the far-right Jewish Power (‘Otzma Yehudit’) party, with support from Likud and Yisrael Beitenu lawmakers. Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the far-right Jewish Power party and Minister of National Security, was one of the leading voices calling to revive the death penalty. He made a populist campaign out of it, as he has on other issues, and wore a golden noose-shaped lapel pin throughout the heated campaign. After the committee’s vote, he described the bill as ‘the most important law the Knesset has enacted in recent years’, saying that ‘with God’s help, we will fully implement this law and kill our enemies’.

Some critics see Jewish Power’s push to approve the law as related to Israel’s upcoming elections later this year.

During Ben Gvir’s tenure as Minister for National Security, Israeli human rights groups such as Physicians for Human Rights have reported a sharp increase in cases of abuse and torture in Israeli prisons and military detention centres.

According to Israeli human rights NGO HaMoked, at least 94 Palestinians, security detainees and prisoners died in Israeli prison or military detention facilities from the start of the war until August 2025.

DW