Israel’s Knesset has passed a new death penalty law pushed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, with 62 lawmakers backing it in final readings and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voting in favor. Supporters cast it as a post–October 7 answer to terrorists who carry out deliberate, murderous attacks against Israelis.

The core change is severe: for Palestinian terrorists convicted in military courts in Judea & Samaria of deadly attacks, death by hanging becomes the default sentence, with life imprisonment left only for vaguely defined “special circumstances.” The law also sets a timetable of up to 90 days for carrying out the sentence, making this one of the most far-reaching shifts in Israeli punishment policy in decades.

There is an important catch. Despite the political messaging around October 7, the law does not apply retroactively to the Hamas terrorists who carried out that massacre; their prosecution is expected to be handled through separate legislation. Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954, and the only execution ever carried out after a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann in 1962, which underscores how dramatic this move is inside Israel’s legal system.

Now the battle shifts from the Knesset floor to the courts and the diplomatic arena. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has already petitioned the High Court to strike the law down, while the EU called the move “very concerning.” The U.S., by contrast, stopped short of condemnation and said it respects Israel’s sovereign right to determine its own laws and penalties, while expecting fair-trial protections.