Israel’s interior minister backs death penalty for terrorists

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said on Sunday that he supports the death penalty for the Hamas terrorists who led the Oct. 7 massacre.

“The law that exists today allows it. I think the time has come in the name of justice and in the name of morality to carry out what the law today allows. This is not like any other case. We must definitely carry out the provisions of the law in relation to those Nazis of Nukhba,” the minister told Radio 103FM.

Death squads from the Nukhba Force, a special forces unit of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s “military” wing burst across the Gaza security barrier on the morning of Oct. 7, rampaging across the northwestern Negev, murdering 1,200 people, wounding more than 5,000 and taking back to Gaza over 240 hostages.

Many Nukbha (“elite” in Arabic) terrorists were killed or fled back to Gaza, while others were captures by Israeli forces.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced on Saturday evening in an X post that his Otzma Yehudit Party will introduce a bill to the Knesset this week mandating the death penalty for terrorists.

MK Limor Son Har-Melech submitted the bill, which will be discussed in the National Security Committee chaired by MK Zvika Fogel on Monday. Both lawmakers are members of Otzma Yehudit.

“I expect all members of the Knesset to support this important law,” Ben-Gvir wrote.

Likud Party lawmaker Amit Halevi last month submitted a bill to Israel’s parliament that would allow courts to impose the death penalty on Palestinian terrorists who participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror assault.

Ben-Gvir last week visited one of the correctional facilities housing the Nukhba terrorists captured on Oct. 7, accompanied by Israel Prison Service Commissioner Katy Perry.

According to a report in Ynet, the Nukhba prisoners are kept in a separate wing and forced to listen to Israel’s national anthem “Hatikva” 24 hours a day.

“The murderers of the Nukhba should not see a single drop of sun. I saw the minimal conditions in which they are kept, this is how it should be done for those who massacred women, children and the elderly,” Ben-Gvir was quoted as saying after his visit.

Since the beginning of the war on Oct. 7, 2,600 security prisoners have been incarcerated in Israel.