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Israeli Parliament Advances Death Penalty Bill Backed by Ben-Gvir 

Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir walks inside the Knesset, on the day US President Donald Trump delivers remarks, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir walks inside the Knesset, on the day US President Donald Trump delivers remarks, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israeli Parliament Advances Death Penalty Bill Backed by Ben-Gvir 

Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir walks inside the Knesset, on the day US President Donald Trump delivers remarks, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir walks inside the Knesset, on the day US President Donald Trump delivers remarks, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)

The Israeli parliament has advanced a bill that would mandate the death penalty for Palestinian militants convicted of killing Israeli citizens, with some lawmakers believing it would prevent future prisoner-release deals.

In a vote held late on Monday - the first of four needed for the measure to become law - the bill passed with 39 in favor and 16 against, out of 120 lawmakers.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had called on all political factions to back the bill, which he has said was aimed at creating deterrence against "Arab terrorism".

"This is how we fight terror; this is how we create deterrence," he said in a statement after the initial vote. "Once the law is finally passed — terrorists will be released only to hell."

SOME PARTIES BOYCOTTED MONDAY'S VOTE

The bill will now move to a parliamentary committee for further debate before a second and third vote. It is not guaranteed that it will become law, with several key political parties having boycotted Monday's initial vote.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid was quoted by Israeli media as saying that he would not vote in favor of the bill.

The PLO, the Palestinian national umbrella political group, condemned the vote, with Palestinian National Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh calling the draft law "a political, legal, and humanitarian crime". The vote was also criticized by Hamas.

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

Ben-Gvir has argued that imposing the death penalty would deter anyone considering an attack similar to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and resulted in 251 hostages being taken to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza killed more than 69,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health officials in Gaza. A tenuous ceasefire was agreed last month that included the release of 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza, plus the remains of deceased ones in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

PRISONER RELEASE DEALS

Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees since October 2023 in exchange for the release of the hostages that were being held by Palestinian fighters.

Most of the hostages have been released except for the remains of three deceased Israelis and one foreigner.

Tzvika Foghel, a member of Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party and chair of the parliamentary national security committee, where the bill will now be debated, said imposing the death penalty would mean no more prisoner deals.

Palestinians who have been released have included some convicted of serious crimes, including murder. There were also many who had not been convicted of any crime.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was released in 2011 as part of an exchange of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier held in Gaza. Far-right Israeli politicians such as Ben-Gvir have, during the war in Gaza, opposed the release of Palestinians who were involved in the killings of Israelis.

Ben-Gvir handed out sweets to fellow lawmakers after the initial vote passed. In Gaza, some Palestinian militants had handed out sweets to the public after the October 2023 attack.

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Arab World

Iraq’s Najaf Suspends Iranian Airlines, Enforcing US Sanctions

An Iranian passenger carrying luggage leaves Najaf International Airport after arriving on an AVA Airlines flight, in Najaf, Iraq, September 23, 2026. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
An Iranian passenger carrying luggage leaves Najaf International Airport after arriving on an AVA Airlines flight, in Najaf, Iraq, September 23, 2026. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
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Iraq’s Najaf Suspends Iranian Airlines, Enforcing US Sanctions

An Iranian passenger carrying luggage leaves Najaf International Airport after arriving on an AVA Airlines flight, in Najaf, Iraq, September 23, 2026. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
An Iranian passenger carrying luggage leaves Najaf International Airport after arriving on an AVA Airlines flight, in Najaf, Iraq, September 23, 2026. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

Iraq's Najaf airport suspended all Iranian flights on Friday, enforcing US sanctions, the airport director told AFP.

Airport director Hussein Muhanna told AFP that "all flights were halted between Iran and Najaf airport following a directive from the prime minister's office to the governor" of Najaf.

The airport in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, is a major hub for Iranian flights.

Iranian airlines were suspended at 02:00 am (2300 GMT Thursday), the airport director said.

Several sources, including a senior government official, told AFP earlier this week that Iraq will enforce the US ban on Iranian airlines, joining several other countries.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said that Iranian airlines will "shut down" on Wednesday.

Although land routes are available, Iraq remains one of the top destinations for Iranian airlines, especially after Iraqi airlines stopped flying to Iran at the start of the Middle East war in February.

Arab World

Board of Peace Has Met with UNRWA Despite Saying it Has No Gaza Role, Agency's Ex-chief Says

People walk past the UNRWA Vocational Training Center, where Israeli security forces have remained since raiding the facility on August 25, at the Qalandia refugee camp, south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, on August 27, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP) (AFP)
People walk past the UNRWA Vocational Training Center, where Israeli security forces have remained since raiding the facility on August 25, at the Qalandia refugee camp, south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, on August 27, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP) (AFP)
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Board of Peace Has Met with UNRWA Despite Saying it Has No Gaza Role, Agency's Ex-chief Says

People walk past the UNRWA Vocational Training Center, where Israeli security forces have remained since raiding the facility on August 25, at the Qalandia refugee camp, south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, on August 27, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP) (AFP)
People walk past the UNRWA Vocational Training Center, where Israeli security forces have remained since raiding the facility on August 25, at the Qalandia refugee camp, south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, on August 27, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP) (AFP)

As the US-created Board of Peace pushes ahead with plans to rebuild Gaza, it has said there’s no place for the UN body that for decades has provided support to displaced Palestinians. But the agency’s last chief says that behind the scenes, board members and others have been more open to working with the UN agency for Palestinians than it seems.

Israel wants the agency known as UNRWA out of Gaza and has repeatedly accused it of being infiltrated by Hamas militants, allegations the International Court of Justice says have not been substantiated. And yet UNRWA remains the territory’s largest aid provider, playing a key role in health and education.

Philippe Lazzarini, who led UNRWA until earlier this year, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview — his first since stepping down — that members of the Palestinian technocratic committee want to work with the agency. Another UN official shared with AP minutes from meetings where UNRWA and the committee discussed collaborating on plans for Gaza.

A Board of Peace official confirmed that board members had met multiple times with UNRWA officials.

And while the agency’s days are over, its programs “may persist if they are serving Gazans well,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Israel's Foreign Ministry did not respond when asked about these remarks.

UNRWA has more workers in Gaza than anyone else

There’s been no reconstruction in Gaza, almost a year since the ceasefire. Israel still prevents the entry of the Palestinian committee chosen by the Board of Peace to eventually govern the strip, saying Hamas must first disarm. The committee says it needs to be inside the strip to activate Gaza plans.

That's left UNRWA on the ground in Gaza, with far more workers than any other UN agency or nongovernmental organization. It props up about half of Gaza’s public health system, said Lazzarini, whose last working day was March 31. He plans to publish a book this year about his tenure.

“They want to get rid of the agency, but on the other hand they know that if you get completely rid of the agency today, it might have a further additional devastating impact on the population,” Lazzarini said.

During the war, sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, UNRWA temporarily took on a larger role, coordinating the entry and distribution of aid into the besieged Palestinian territory. Israel's attacks on the agency neutered that role, banning UNRWA international staff and humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

But UNRWA's core programs remained, Lazzarini said.

It still has around 11,000 Palestinian employees in Gaza. They conduct about 14,000 medical appointments daily, maintain water and waste management systems for over a million Palestinians, run digital literacy and math programs for over 280,000 children and staff temporary learning spaces for 60,000 more, UNRWA says.

UNRWA makes sure aid reaches people, Lazzarini said. “If you want the vaccine to end up in the mouths of the children, you still need the workforce, the presence of an agency like ours.”

UNRWA was told it's vital in planning Gaza's future Publicly, the agency has not been included in the Board of Peace’s planning for Gaza. At Wednesday's board briefing, members named various UN agencies as partners in the territory's reconstruction, but not UNRWA.

However, behind the scenes, the Palestinian committee that will eventually govern Gaza acknowledged that UNRWA is necessary for planning, Lazzarini said.

Two senior UN officials and the board official told the AP the board had met multiple times with UNRWA since the ceasefire was signed.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, confirmed at least three meetings between UNRWA officials and the Palestinian committee this year, most recently this month. Two took place during Lazzarini’s tenure.

Shortly before the end of his tenure, Lazzarini said, he spoke to Ali Shaath, a former Palestinian Authority deputy minister who leads the Palestinian committee.

“Basically, he said, ‘I don’t know how I can succeed without you’,” Lazzarini said. Shaath and a spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

An internal UN description of a Jan. 26 meeting in Cairo, held without UNRWA, said Shaath praised the agency, showed a clear intention to see it back on track and said the Palestinian committee's system would largely build on its work.

The Tony Blair Institute, a Board of Peace partner, also asked for UNRWA’s help and spoke to UNRWA personnel, one senior UN official said. The institute did not respond to a request for comment.

At a pledging conference for UNRWA on June 30, the agency's current acting chief, Christian Saunders, called it “vital” to efforts by the board and the Palestinian committee to move forward with the ceasefire.

But the Board of Peace official painted a different picture, saying the meetings focused on determining how UNRWA’s operations work in order to develop programs that are “far more efficient and accountable.”

“UNRWA’s days are over,” the official said. Still, its employees ”will remain if they pass vetting and are delivering on their mandate and not advancing ideology or Hamas interests.”

Lazzarini said it's an “absurd contradiction" — the Board of Peace says UNRWA is not wanted while UN member countries “expect it to deliver.”

“We continue to emphasize that UNRWA is indispensable,” Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told journalists Thursday after over 50 countries attended a ministerial meeting on the agency at UN headquarters.

Lazzarini says he has faced personal attacks UNRWA was established to help Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.

In January 2024, Israel claimed, in many cases without providing evidence, that hundreds of Palestinians worked for the agency and that over a dozen of its employees took part in the Oct. 7 attack.

Lazzarini said that he was never given written evidence to back up the allegations despite asking Israel and UN member states, but that he doesn't regret his decision to fire the employees accused of taking part in the attack.

“I did because it was in the best interest of the agency and the population we were helping," Lazzarini said, adding that he has faced “extraordinary vicious, heinous attacks on social media” as well as being accosted in the streets, "in Geneva and in New York” and shouted at by "pro-Israeli groups.”

His book, “A Witness to Gaza: What Cannot Be Erased," will be published in French in October, with an English version to follow.

Arab World

Israeli Army Says 2 Soldiers Killed in Gaza

Palestinians walk amid war-damaged buildings in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians walk amid war-damaged buildings in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Israeli Army Says 2 Soldiers Killed in Gaza

Palestinians walk amid war-damaged buildings in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians walk amid war-damaged buildings in Gaza City, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel's army said Friday that two reserve soldiers were killed in Gaza, with a military source telling AFP they died in an explosion of an Israeli army drone.

"The IDF drone crashed at a military post in the Gaza Strip but did not explode. The soldiers approached the drone, which exploded moments later," the official said.

The army identified the soldiers as Nadav Kali, aged 24, and Ofek Moalem, 23, from its 7007th Battalion, 16th Brigade.