Israel approves special military court for October 7 attack suspects
Israel has approved establishing a special military tribunal to prosecute those involved in the October 7, 2023, attack carried out by Hamas and other extremist factions.
The legislation was passed late Monday night by 93 out of 120 lawmakers in parliament in Jerusalem in its third and final reading.
The tribunal will be based in Jerusalem, though it remains unclear when it will begin operations.
The law also provides for a controversial interpretation of existing legislation that could allow the death penalty for the perpetrators of the October 7 attack, Israeli media reports.
Israeli authorities say more than 3,000 militants took part in the assault on border communities, adding that some Palestinian civilians were also involved in acts of violence and looting.
The attackers killed around 1,200 people in Israel and abducted more than 250 others to the Gaza Strip.
The unprecedented assault triggered Israel’s devastating war in Gaza.
According to the Hamas-run health authority in Gaza, more than 72,700 Palestinians have been killed since then.
One of the bill’s sponsors, Simcha Rothman, compared the planned proceedings to the 1945-46 Nuremberg trials, in which Nazi war criminals were tried before an international military tribunal in Germany.
According to Israeli intelligence, around 1,600 of the October 7 attackers were killed, while others managed to return to the Gaza Strip.
The news outlet Ynet reported that more than 400 suspected militants arrested during or after the attacks are expected to be indicted.
Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954, though it remains legally permissible in certain cases, including for Nazi crimes or treason during wartime.
The 1962 execution of Adolf Eichmann, a chief organiser behind the Nazi mass murder of Europe’s Jews, remains the last time a death sentence handed down by an Israeli court was carried out.
In March, Israel’s parliament approved separate legislation introducing the death penalty for terrorists, though it cannot be applied retroactively to crimes committed on October 7.
(dpa/NAN)
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