The measure, promoted by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, was endorsed on Monday by the Knesset’s National Security Committee and now moves to parliament for its first reading.
It would make capital punishment mandatory for Palestinians “convicted of murder with a national motive” under circumstances deemed intended to harm the State of Israel.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the proposal “a new form of escalating Israeli extremism and criminality against the Palestinian people.”
“It is a dangerous step aimed at continuing genocide and ethnic cleansing under the guise of legitimacy,” the ministry said.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, which monitors detainees’ conditions, said Israel has pursued “a policy of slow executions” against prisoners and warned that codifying capital punishment “represents an unprecedented level of brutality.”
The Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, based in Gaza, described the draft bill as “a dangerous shift in Israeli policy by enshrining systematic, state-sanctioned killing of Palestinian detainees.”
The Palestinian Bar Association denounced the measure as “a step towards legalizing crime and an extension of the policy of violating the lives of prisoners,” warning that its passage would “blatantly challenge international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.”
The Palestinian group Hamas likewise condemned the decision, saying it “embodies the ugly fascist face of the rogue Zionist occupation and represents a blatant violation of international law.”
“We call upon the United Nations, the international community, and relevant human-rights and humanitarian organizations to take immediate action to stop this brutal crime,” it added.
Rights groups have long documented systematic torture, starvation, and medical neglect in Israeli prisons, where more than 11,000 Palestinians are currently held.
Israel says it has not carried out a civilian execution since 1962 and maintains that the death penalty remains formally legal under Israeli law, but only for extreme cases.
Israeli forces have meanwhile killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since the war in the strip began in October 2023, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Ben Gvir, one of the most hard-line figures in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, has long championed capital punishment for Palestinians accused of attacks on Israelis.
Last week, he posted a shocking video of himself standing over Palestinian prisoners lying face-down with their hands tied, in which he called for the death penalty to be applied.
In a caption accompanying the footage, Ben Gvir boasted about the harsh detention conditions imposed on Palestinian prisoners, conditions that human-rights organisations say amount to torture and collective punishment.
Before Monday’s vote, Ben Gvir had threatened to pull his Otzma Yehudit faction’s support from the governing coalition if the bill was not brought forward by Sunday — a move that could have destabilized the government.
After the committee’s endorsement, he thanked Netanyahu for backing the measure and hailed the approval as “a dream come true,” saying Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, would have no discretionary authority over its enforcement.
Israel’s coordinator for captives and missing persons, Gal Hirsch, said both he and Netanyahu supported the proposal.
“The prime minister supports this proposal. I consider this law to be an additional tool in our arsenal,” he said.
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