Israel | Rejecting request to delay discussion, National Security Minister claims death penalty bill will help hostages

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir insists that a bill to impose the death penalty on terrorists will “allow us to bring the hostages home,” and says he rejected a request to push off discussion of the controversial measure over concerns that it could complicate efforts to free them.

Ben Gvir tells the Knesset National Security Committee, which is holding a meeting to advance the legislation, that the bill will “bring deterrence” and “advance the return of the hostages” while showing Hamas that “there is a price tag for what they did” on October 7.

He tells the committee that “people in the Prime Minister’s Office reached out to me and asked to delay the discussion, and the answer is no.”

“They told us that we cannot change the conditions of the terrorists in jails,” he says, claiming he faced opposition from the premier’s allies “who told us… it’s not right, not appropriate, that it will infuriate the terrorists and could result in an intifada.”

Israeli official fear the passage of such a law will set back talks for the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian terror convicts.

Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, warns the panel of potential risk to the lives of the hostages still held by Hamas should the Knesset legislate the death penalty.

“It’s not for nothing that we’re requesting not to hold this discussion,” he says. “Especially when we are in a joint military and diplomatic process to return the hostages.”

The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv is removed from the meeting by security guards after lambasting Ben Gvir over a taunting visit he staged to the cell of Palestinian terror convict Marwan Barghouti.

“Shame on you, there are hostages,” he shouts before being led out.

Source: timesofisrael.com, Charlie Summers, September 28, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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