Israel’s Knesset approves bill to create special tribunal for Hamas October 7 terrorists

Hamas militants breach the Israel-Gaza border on the morning of 7 October 2023

Noa Shpigel reports in Haaretz on 12 May 2026:

Israel’s Knesset approved on Monday night a bill establishing a special tribunal for Hamas terrorists who took part in the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The measure passed with 93 votes in favor, and no opposition.

The law follows a long-term legal debate over how Israel should prosecute hundreds of Hamas terrorists captured during or after the October 7 attack.

The legislation stipulates that the special tribunal – tasked with trying more than 250 Hamas elite Nukhba force terrorists detained in Israel since the attack – will function as a military court. Indictments will include charges such as genocide, harming state sovereignty or territorial integrity, initiating war, aiding the enemy in wartime, offenses under the Counter-Terrorism Law and murder.

Cases will be heard by a military court in Jerusalem. The IDF chief of staff, upon the recommendation of the Military Advocate General, will be authorized to appoint prosecutors. The tribunal will operate through panels of three judges, at least one of whom must have served as president of a military court.

The tribunal will be permitted to depart from standard procedural and evidentiary rules if it determines that doing so is necessary to ascertain the truth and ensure justice. This may include flexibility regarding access to investigative materials, evidentiary chain-of-custody requirements, reliance on written submissions, and adaptations in the taking of witness testimony.

Authorities had previously prepared indictments against some suspects, including 22 believed to have directly participated in killings and kidnappings at Kibbutz Nir Oz, but broader legal action had been delayed by unresolved questions over how the trials would be conducted.

The newly passed legislation was backed by both the coalition and most of the opposition, thanks to the result of cooperation between Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) and MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beiteinu).

It also received the support of Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who said, “This is one of the most important moments for the current Knesset. The law ensures that the terrorists and their accomplices will be brought to trial and face punishment, including the possibility of death penalties.”

Early in the process, the bill drew criticism for being advanced as a private member’s bill after the Justice Ministry failed to promote government legislation, amid a lack of cooperation between Levin and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.  Over the course of lengthy deliberations in the Constitution Committee, however, input from legal professionals and public stakeholders was incorporated, and the bill underwent significant revisions.

Additional amendments were introduced in a re-vote held in late April. One establishes a dedicated guard unit for the tribunal, similar to Israel’s Court Guard, headed by an officer appointed by the national security minister with the approval of the president of the appellate court.

The second amendment allows for the enactment of specific regulations governing the implementation of the death penalty under this law, effectively severing its linkage to the separate death penalty legislation passed in March, although the highly contentious legislation does not pertain to Nukhba terrorists in any case.

Those changes are meant to address the practical and evidentiary challenges of mass prosecutions stemming from October 7, including cases built on interrogations, documents, video footage, digital files seized in Gaza, security-camera recordings, data extracted from detainees’ phones and geolocation records.

The Organization for Families and Hostages, founded by former hostages and families of those held captive, welcomed the bill but stressed that “the State of Israel has a duty to ensure that the families and survivors do not once again become victims of the event, this time within the legal process itself.”  The group said it worked during committee deliberations to ensure protections such as privacy, the right to attend hearings, access to information and respectful treatment of victims are embedded in the proceedings.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel condemned the bill’s approval, saying: “The survivors of the massacre and the families of the victims deserve justice and the search for truth – not revenge in the form of show trials, and not death sentences imposed on the basis of confessions extracted through torture.”

The committee’s executive director, attorney Sari Bashi, said that “the death penalty is always wrong, as a cruel and inhumane punishment that denies the right to life. The next government must repeal the law and remove the death penalty from the laws of the State of Israel.”

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