Levin pushing for tribunal empowered to impose death sentence on Oct. 7 perpetrators

Bill to form special tribunal calls to try October 7 suspects under Israel’s genocide law, which can carry a death sentence, though decision ultimately in PM’s hands

By Jeremy Sharon

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16 October 2025, 9:36 pm Edit

Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced on Thursday that he is advancing legislation in the Knesset to establish a special criminal tribunal to try Gazans accused of carrying out massacres and atrocities on October 7, 2023, in a process that could result in death sentences being handed down to those convicted.

The tribunal will be able to try the dozens of Gazans captured in Israel between October 7 and October 14, 2023, suspected of being Hamas operatives for crimes listed under Israel’s 1950 Law for the Prevention of Genocide, which is based on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which can carry a death sentence.

In a joint statement to the press made together with Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman, and committee member MK Yulia Malinovsky of the Yisrael Beytenu opposition party, Levin stated that advancement of the bill was now possible following the return of all the living hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and held in Gaza since then.

The Constitution Committee has already begun deliberations on the joint legislation authored by Rothman and Malinovsky behind closed doors, and Levin seeks to bring the bill to its first reading in the Knesset plenum in short order and advance the legislation as quickly as possible, to begin trials for the October 7 suspects as soon as possible.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas led an invasion of southern Israel in which 1,200 people were massacred. The thousands of terrorists who burst into the country also abducted 251 people who were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.

Terror operatives committed numerous atrocities during the savage invasion, many of which were documented by the terrorists themselves on bodycams they wore during the attack.

Israeli soldiers walk next to bodies of people murdered by Hamas terrorists in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, October 7, 2023. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

The IDF estimated that it killed more than 1,600 terrorists during the onslaught in Israel, and captured 149.

Numerous law enforcement agencies have been developing plans for prosecuting them, but steps to advance prosecutions have likely been delayed due to concerns that doing so would risk the lives of the hostages in Gaza.

Under the terms of the legislation and the special tribunal it would establish, the state would be able to seek a death sentence for those convicted of such crimes falling under the genocide law, although that decision would need to be approved by the prime minister in consultation with senior security officials.

Levin supports the death penalty for those convicted of such crimes, and the indictments have been drafted to enable the suspects to be tried for crimes punishable by death.

As well as genocide charges, the special tribunal would also be able to try suspects on charges of crimes against humanity, murder, rape and hostage taking,

The tribunal would be staffed by a total of 15 judges who are either qualified to serve on Israel’s Supreme Court or are international jurists whom the justice minister, in consultation with the foreign minister, deem have the appropriate qualifications to sit on such a panel.

An individual case would be heard by three judges, while a five-judge panel would hear proceedings involving multiple indictees. Appeals would be heard by all 15 judges.

A grab from a UGC video posted on the Telegram channel ‘South First Responders’ on October 9, 2023, shows a Palestinian terrorist walking around the Supernova music festival, near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel on October 7. (South First Responders/AFP)

In the press statement, Levin said that intensive work had been conducted since the October 7 Hamas invasion by the State Attorney’s Office, the police and the Shin Bet, which carried out comprehensive investigations into the terrorist operatives detained in Israel between October 7 and 14, and gathered “unprecedented volumes of evidence” against them.

This includes thousands of hours of video footage and thousands of hours of testimony, the minister stated. Draft indictments have now been produced for the alleged terrorist operatives based on this evidence.

But due to the large number of cases and the special circumstances of the crimes they are alleged to have committed, Levin said that a need arose to make a number of legislative amendments “to ensure that the legal process is conducted efficiently and that justice is both done and seen.”