عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Bill on ‘Executing Prisoners’ Passes Preliminary Knesset Vote

Negev desert prison, which houses Palestinian detainees. (File)
Negev desert prison, which houses Palestinian detainees. (File)
TT
20
TT

Bill on ‘Executing Prisoners’ Passes Preliminary Knesset Vote

Negev desert prison, which houses Palestinian detainees. (File)
Negev desert prison, which houses Palestinian detainees. (File)

The Knesset on Wednesday advanced a bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinian captives, approving it in its preliminary reading.

The primary legislation stipulates that courts will be able to impose the death penalty on those who have committed a nationalistically motivated murder of an Israeli.

According to the proposed bill, a mandatory death penalty would be imposed on intentional acts causing the death of an Israeli citizen “with the objective of harming Israel and uprooting the Jewish people from the country”.

The bill - approved 55-9 - was submitted by MK Limor Son Har Melech from the Otzma Yehudit party.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government “will continue to operate in all ways… to deter terrorists.”

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara was set to oppose the law on the grounds that it poses significant constitutional difficulties and goes against Israel’s declarations on the matter in international forums and against the international trend of limiting the use of the death sentence.

A joint statement by Netanyahu and Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that the initial bill advanced Sunday stipulates that “courts will be able to impose a death penalty on those who committed a nationalistically motivated murder offense against a citizen of Israel.”

The bill will later be discussed by the high-level security cabinet.

Adalah, a human rights and legal center in Israel, condemned the bill for exclusively targeting Palestinians.

Voting on the bill could exacerbate the tension in Israeli prisons.

The Israeli prisons suppression units attacked on Wednesday the departments of captives in Negev prison.

The Commission of Detainees' and Ex-Detainees' Affairs said that the Israeli forces attacked the captives and used excessive force against them.

Tension prevails in the Negev prison following an attempt by the Israeli Prison Administration to impose new sanctions on the captives, according to the Commission.

In the same context, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club also spoke about the current tension in the Negev prison.

The inmates have been on a strike for two weeks as a form of objection against Ben Gvir's steps including the transfer of inmates between prisons, and depriving them of privileges.

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

Without Meat, Families in Gaza Struggle to Celebrate Eid Al-Adha Holiday

Displaced Palestinians walk along a road to receive humanitarian aid packages from a US-backed foundation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 5, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Displaced Palestinians walk along a road to receive humanitarian aid packages from a US-backed foundation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 5, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
TT
20
TT

Without Meat, Families in Gaza Struggle to Celebrate Eid Al-Adha Holiday

Displaced Palestinians walk along a road to receive humanitarian aid packages from a US-backed foundation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 5, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Displaced Palestinians walk along a road to receive humanitarian aid packages from a US-backed foundation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 5, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

With the Gaza Strip devastated by war and siege, Palestinians struggled Thursday to celebrate one of the most important Islamic holidays.

To mark Eid al-Adha — Arabic for the Festival of Sacrifice — Muslims traditionally slaughter a sheep or cow and give away part of the meat to the poor as an act of charity. Then they have a big family meal with sweets. Children get gifts of new clothes.

But no fresh meat has entered Gaza for three months. Israel has blocked shipments of food and other aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. And nearly all the territory’s homegrown sheep, cattle and goats are dead after 20 months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives, said The Associated Press.

Some of the little livestock left was on sale at a makeshift pen set up in the vast tent camp of Muwasi in the southern part of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

But no one could afford to buy. A few people came to look at the sheep and goats, along with a cow and a camel. Some kids laughed watching the animals and called out the prayers connected to the holiday.

“I can’t even buy bread. No meat, no vegetables,” said Abdel Rahman Madi. “The prices are astronomical.”

But prices for everything have soared amid the blockade, which was only slightly eased two weeks ago. Meat and most fresh fruits and vegetables disappeared from the markets weeks ago.

At a street market in the nearby city of Khan Younis, some stalls had stuffed sheep toys and other holiday knickknacks and old clothes. But most people left without buying any gifts after seeing the prices.

“Before, there was an Eid atmosphere, the children were happy ... Now with the blockade, there’s no flour, no clothes, no joy,” said Hala Abu Nqeira, a woman looking through the market. “We just go to find flour for our children. We go out every day looking for flour at a reasonable price, but we find it at unbelievable prices.”

Israel’s campaign against Hamas has almost entirely destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself. The UN says 96% of the livestock and 99% of the poultry are dead. More than 95% of Gaza’s prewar cropland is unusable, either too damaged or inaccessible inside Israeli military zones, according to a land survey published this week by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Israel barred all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months.

It eased the blockade two weeks ago to allow a trickle of aid trucks in for the UN to distribute. The trucks have brought in some food items, mainly flour. But the UN says it has struggled to delivery much of the incoming aid because of looting or Israeli military restrictions.

Almost the entire population of more than 2 million people have been driven from their homes, and most have had to move multiple times to escape Israeli offensives.

Rasha Abu Souleyma said she recently slipped back to her home in Rafah — from which her family had fled to take refuge in Khan Younis — to find some possessions she’d left behind.

She came back with some clothes, pink plastic sunglasses and bracelets that she gave to her two daughters as Eid gifts.

“I can’t buy them clothes or anything,” the 38-year-old said. “I used to bring meat in Eid so they would be happy, but now we can’t bring meat, and I can’t even feed the girls with bread.”

Near her, a group of children played on makeshift swings made of knotted and looped ropes.

Karima Nejelli, a displaced woman from Rafah, pointed out that people in Gaza had now marked both Eid al-Adha and the other main Islamic holiday, Eid al-Fitr, two times each under the war. “During these four Eids, we as Palestinians did not see any kind of joy, no sacrifice, no cookies, no buying Eid clothes or anything.”