Israel | Death penalty for terrorists would be "violating international law," Hamas says

Hostages should be given "the honor of pressing the button" to carry out death penalties for Hamas terrorists, former Gaza hostage Eliya Cohen said in an Instagram post on Tuesday, in response to a Hamas statement criticizing Otzma Yehudit's death penalty bill.

"Raping, murdering, smashing heads, desecrating bodies, burning babies, kidnapping civilians, and torturing them 24/7, is that not a violation of the international convention?" Cohen wrote.

The former hostage's reaction came after Hamas published a statement claiming that Israel had violated the International Convention on Human Rights by deciding to advance with the proposal of a death penalty law for terrorists. The terror group has called on the UN and judicial institutions to intervene.

In International Law, the death penalty is addressed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Hamas has alleged that, by approving a death penalty law for terrorists, Israel would be violating international law.

However, Article 6 of the ICCPR permits the use of the death penalty in limited circumstances. It is established that, in countries where the death penalty is allowed, "sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime and not contrary to the provisions of the present Covenant and to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court."

Death penalty bill for terrorists advances in Knesset

The death penalty for terrorists bill passed its first reading in December and is now being debated in Knesset committee meetings to prepare it for a second and third reading. It was proposed by the Otzma Yehudit Party, and led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The bill’s explanatory notes say that since imprisonment does not serve as a sufficient deterrence for terrorists, it is proposed that terrorists who commit murder will be punished by death. “This punishment is expected to deter and thus prevent additional acts of terrorism,” the explanatory notes add.

In November 2025, Ben-Gvir called the bill “the most important law in the history of the State of Israel. Every terrorist should know. This law will deter them. It will make them afraid. It will make them think a thousand times before carrying out another October 7.

Further on, in January, Ben-Gvir announced that hanging would be the method of execution for terrorists under the death penalty law instead of lethal injection, presenting a revised outline of the bill during a Knesset National Security Committee meeting.

“We’re coming up with the best outline, the most exact one,” Ben-Gvir told the panel. “This formulation is acceptable to the majority of citizens of the State of Israel, whereas at the beginning of the term I was told it was unrealistic.”

The bill passed its first reading in the Knesset plenum in November and must still pass two additional readings to become law. Ben-Gvir has vowed to hold marathon committee discussions to advance the legislation.

Under the new outline, executions would be carried out by hanging under the responsibility of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) and administered within 90 days of a final judgment.

Source: jpost.com, Lara Sukster Mosheyof, February 11, 2026

"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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