What does Israel’s new law mean for prosecuting the perpetrators of the October 7 attack?
A new law in Israel opens the door to special trials for Hamas members accused of participating in the October 7 attack, with penalties that may reach “the death penalty.”
The legislation received broad support from the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as most opposition parties, and was passed by 93 votes to none.
On Monday, the Israeli parliament approved, in its second and third readings, a bill providing for the establishment of a specialized military court to try approximately 400 members of Hamas’s elite unit who have been detained in Israel since the October 7, 2023 attack, according to statements by an Israeli official to the American network CNN.
During the October 7 attack led by Hamas, more than 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 251 others were taken hostage, before both the living and the deceased were later released in exchange deals.
In response, Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that lasted two years, resulting in the deaths of more than seventy thousand Palestinians, hundreds of thousands of injuries, the displacement of most of the territory’s 2.3 million residents, and the leveling of entire residential neighborhoods.
The official noted that establishing the court and initiating proceedings could take several months.
How will these individuals be tried?
According to CNN, the court sessions will be public, audio and video recorded, and the main hearings will be broadcast on a dedicated website.
Judicial panels will be presided over by current or retired judges from district courts.
The bill also stipulates that the costs of legal representation for the defendants will be deducted from funds transferred to the Palestinian Authority, although the latter, headquartered in Ramallah in the West Bank, was not involved in the October 7 attack.
Criticism
For its part, the Israeli human rights organization Adalah condemned the court, describing it as “fundamentally incompatible with the right to life, the presumption of innocence, judicial independence, and the rule of law.”
In a statement issued before the final passage of the bill, Adalah said that “the legislation would render any death sentence an arbitrary deprivation of life, strictly prohibited under international law, and potentially amounting to a war crime.”
However, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin stated on Sunday that the law would ensure “the documentation of the historical record” of the attack he described as “horrific,” for the victims, the hostages, those responsible, and future generations.
Is this law different from the one concerning other detainees?
This law differs from the death penalty law passed by the Israeli government last March, which expanded the scope of capital punishment to include Palestinians convicted of murder on nationalist grounds.
The March law drew sharp criticism from Arab and Western countries, human rights organizations, and the Palestinian Authority, which denounced it as racist and discriminatory.
