Israel: Knesset approves death penalty for terrorists in first reading
The holding of the 'ceasefire' in the Gaza Strip and the return of hostages are discussed. Terrorist organisation complains about ceasefire violations
Key points
The proposed law on the death penalty for terrorists was passed in the first reading by the Knesset and will now pass to the parliamentary committees for discussion. 39 members of the Knesset voted in favour of the bill, while 16 opposed it. The bill by MP Limor Son Har-Melech stipulates that Israeli courts must impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationally motivated murder against an Israeli citizen, while allowing judges of military courts in the West Bank to sentence the perpetrators to death by a simple majority instead of a unanimous decision. The law would also eliminate the possibility for regional military commanders to commute such sentences. "We are about to make history. We promised it and we kept it," Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir commented on X.
The approval came on the day that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu met with White House envoy, Steve Witkoff, and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The main topics of the meeting were efforts to keep the ceasefire in Gaza in force and to bring the deceased hostages back to Israel.
During the meeting, they discussed disarming Hamas and demilitarising Gaza. This was reported by Netanyahu's office, according to which any decision on the trapped Hamas fighters will be made in cooperation with the Trump administration.
The war "is not over," Netanyahu said, "those who seek to harm us are rearming. They have not given up their goal of destroying us,' the Israeli premier told the Knesset, adding that Hamas 'will be disarmed, Gaza will be demilitarised. It will happen the easy way, or it will happen the hard way. But it will happen,' he promised.
Bulletin of the day
Israel has returned thebodies of 15 more Palestinians to the Gaza Strip authorities, as part of the ceasefire agreement, following the return yesterday of the body of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who was killed and kidnapped by Hamas during the war of 2014. This was announced by the Palestinian Islamist group, pointing out that the handing over of the bodies took place with the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. This brings to 315 the number of bodies of Palestinians returned to Gaza as part of the agreement to return 15 bodies for each hostage. According to Israel, the bodies of four hostages still remain in Gaza.
