Ben-Gvir demands death penalty law for terrorists following hostages’ return

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded on Saturday night that the Knesset enact a death penalty for terrorists following the release of the remaining 20 living hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “promised me for two years,” he told Channel 12‘s “Meet the Press” program. “Every time I asked, our dear prime minister, who I deeply respect, said: Listen, Ben-Gvir, we have hostages. We’ll release the living hostages and then do it.”

Following the Oct. 13 return of the captives under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, “there are no excuses—I want a death penalty law for terrorists,” the Cabinet minister declared.

“It’s the right thing to do, it’s moral and it will prevent them from taking hostages,” said the leader of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit Party, referring to Hamas and other terrorist groups.

On Sept. 28, the Knesset National Security Committee on Sunday approved for first reading a bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists.

Committee members voted to advance the law, which was introduced by Otzma Yehudit Knesset lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech despite warnings by Israel Defense Forces Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, coordinator for the captives and missing, that the move could endanger hostages.

Ben-Gvir confirmed during the debate that Netanyahu’s office had asked him to postpone the vote pending the ceasefire negotiations.

However, Ben-Gvir continued, “Before passing the budget, the prime minister pledged his government would support the death penalty for terrorists.” Hamas should know that “if even a single hair on a hostage’s head is harmed ... precisely at this time the death penalty is needed,” he said.

According to the bill advanced by the committee on Sept. 28, “a terrorist who is convicted of murder out of motives of racism or hostility toward the public, and under circumstances in which the act was carried out with the intention of harming the State of Israel and the rebirth of the Jewish people in its land, shall be sentenced to death.”

The proposed legislation states that convicted terrorists would face a mandatory death sentence, with no room for judicial discretion.