Israel Parliament Set To Vote Today Mandating Death Penalty For The Palestinians.

Jerusalem; March 2026: Israel’s parliament was set to vote on Monday on a law making the death penalty a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military court of deadly attacks, seeing through ​a main pledge by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right allies. The legislation has already drawn international criticism against Israel, which is already under scrutiny for increasing ‌violence by settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The measure includes provisions requiring an execution by hanging within 90 days of sentencing, with some allowance for a delay but no right to clemency and the option of imposing a life imprisonment sentence instead of capital punishment. It was devised by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister who has been reappointed on 19th March 2025 at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The law is the latest action by Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition to raise concern among Israel’s Western allies, who have also been critical of Jewish settler violence ​against Palestinians in the West Bank. In an effort to head off international backlash, Netanyahu asked for some elements of the legislation to be ⁠softened, Israeli media reported.

The original bill had mandated the death sentence for non-Israeli citizens in the West Bank convicted in West Bank military courts of deadly terrorist acts. The revised ​legislation includes the option of life imprisonment. In Israel’s civilian courts, the new legislation mandates either life imprisonment or the death penalty for anyone convicted of “deliberately causing the death of a ​person with the intent of ending Israel’s existence”.

Even before the vote, the bill has drawn criticism from the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy and Britain, who said it had a “de facto discriminatory” character toward Palestinians. “The adoption of this bill would risk undermining Israel’s commitments with regards to democratic principles”, the ministers said in a joint statement on Sunday (29th March 2026).

A group of United Nations experts said that the bill includes “vague ​and overbroad definitions of terrorist”, meaning the death penalty could be meted out over “conduct that is not genuinely terrorist” in nature.

Meanwhile, the Israeli National Security Minister Ben-Gvir has argued that the death penalty would deter Palestinians ​from carrying out deadly attacks against Israelis or attempting kidnappings with the aim of forcing swap deals for Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons.

Amnesty International, which tracks countries imposing death penalty laws, says there “is ‌no evidence ⁠that the death penalty is any more effective in reducing crime than life imprisonment”. The bill has also drawn objections from professionals in Israel’s security and legal establishments throughout its legislation who argued that it was unconstitutional and ineffective. Israeli rights groups and opposition parliament members have said they will challenge the law at Israel’s Supreme Court, which is likely to strike it down.

Israel had long back abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954. The only person ever executed in Israel after a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann, an ​architect of the Nazi Holocaust, in 1962.

Military ​courts retained the option of imposing a ⁠death sentence but have not done so far. Some 54 countries around the world permit the death penalty, including a handful of democracies such as the United States and Japan, according to Amnesty International. The group says that the global trend on the death penalty ​is toward abolition, with 113 countries having outlawed it for all crimes.

The Israeli rights group B’Tselem says that military courts in the ​West Bank, where Palestinians ⁠are tried for alleged crimes, have a 96% conviction rate and have a history of extracting confessions through torture.

Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of racist incitement against Arabs and support for the Kach group on the Israeli and U.S. terrorism blacklists, has overseen an overhaul of prisons that have led to allegations of abuse of Palestinian prisoners. He made capital punishment for Palestinian militants a ⁠main pledge ​in his 2022 election campaign and since taking office has publicly backed some Israeli soldiers being probed for ​suspected excessive force against Palestinians. The next national election is due by October.

Abdallah Al Zughari, the head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club, said that Palestinians in Israeli jails had already been subject to “slow killing practices” that have ​led to the deaths of more than 100 prisoners since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Today on 30th March 2026, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 04 people ‌in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said, in the latest round of violence since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect more than five months ago. Israeli forces also killed 02 people in the occupied West Bank in two separate incidents, Palestinian health officials said.

The Israeli military said it had struck and killed members of a Hamas armed cell ⁠it had identified in the northern Gaza Strip to remove the threat to its troops operating in the area. Later today, another Israeli airstrike killed 01 person and wounded 06 others outside a local community kitchen in the Nuseirat camp in the ​central Gaza Strip, medics said. More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, local health officials say, following an attack on Israel by Hamas-led gunmen in which some 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies.

Hamas and Israel have traded blame for ​violations of a ceasefire agreed last October. The Gaza health ministry said Israeli fire has killed at least 700 people since ​the ceasefire. Israel said four soldiers were killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.

Israel, along with the U.S., is also now engaged in a ‌conflict with Iran, while ⁠Israeli forces have also invaded southern Lebanon in a new campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah. Health officials in Gaza say at least 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the Iran conflict began a month ago.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, health officials said Israeli forces had shot and killed a 22-year-old man near the city of Hebron on Monday. They said soldiers took the body away. Palestinian security sources identified the dead man ​as Ramzi Awawada and accused ​Israeli soldiers of leaving him ⁠to bleed to death and preventing rescuers from reaching him. The Israeli military said its forces had shot and killed a Palestinian who ran towards them holding a knife.

Separately, it said forces operating near ​the city of Tulkarm fired at a Palestinian who accelerated his vehicle toward them, posing ​a threat to ⁠their safety, and “neutralised him”. The soldiers were not hurt, it added. Later, the Palestinian health ministry confirmed the driver’s death, adding that the army had taken away his body.

Rights groups and medics say Israeli settlers are taking advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the Iran ⁠war to ​attack Palestinians in the West Bank, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching ​victims quickly. Settlers have killed at least 05 Palestinians in the West Bank since the conflict began on February 28, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Team Maverick.