Israel has passed a new law enabling the death penalty for those convicted of "terror offences" by military courts, with executions possible within 90 days of conviction. The legislation, approved on Monday, applies to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and allows for capital punishment based on confessions that rights groups say are frequently extracted through torture. Israel's military courts convict 96 percent of Palestinians brought before them, according to human rights monitors. The law arrives less than a month after Israeli authorities dropped all charges against soldiers accused of mass sexual assault on Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman detention facility. United Nations bodies and foreign governments have voiced alarm, but Palestinian rights advocates argue the law formalises an existing system of state violence and impunity. At least 87 Palestinian detainees have died in custody over the past two and a half years, the highest number since 1967, with organisations describing Israel's detention network as a system of torture camps.
The new law coincides with a surge in violence across the West Bank. In the past month, Israeli settlers and military forces carried out over 7,300 violations, including killings, raids, property destruction and movement restrictions. Entire communities, such as Khirbet Zanuta, have been displaced following sustained settler attacks. Refugee camps in northern West Bank were destroyed and repurposed as military bases in 2025. Illegal Israeli settlements previously dismantled are now being legally recognised. Reports from January to March document extreme violence, including the abduction of children, public sexual humiliation of Palestinian men, and families executed at close range. No Israeli individual has faced prosecution for these acts. Palestinians who defend their communities from settler violence are routinely arrested by Israeli forces. The death penalty law, critics say, is not an isolated measure but part of a broader legal architecture designed to eliminate Palestinian resistance and self-determination.
The law specifically targets individuals who "intentionally cause the death of another with the aim of harming a citizen or resident of Israel" for political reasons. Critics argue this language criminalises the political identity of Palestinians under occupation rather than acts of violence alone. Rebuilding former illegal settlements and converting refugee camps into military zones further signal a strategy of territorial erasure.
Legal challenges to the death penalty law are expected, though its enforcement will likely proceed within Israel's military court system.
When Israel passes a law allowing executions within 90 days of conviction in courts that condemn 96 percent of Palestinians—often on the basis of coerced confessions—it is not enacting justice. It is codifying extermination. The timing, immediately after dropping charges for mass sexual assault at Sde Teiman, reveals the law's true function: one population is shielded for atrocities, while the other is fast-tracked to the gallows for existing in resistance. This is not about terrorism. It is about ensuring that to be Palestinian under occupation is, by law, a capital offence.
