Israel Approves Prisoners’ Execution Law After Knesset Vote, Sparking International Condemnation

In Israel, a “Prisoners’ Execution Law” was approved by the Knesset’s General Assembly in its second and third readings “last Monday evening,” after “62 members voted in favor,” drawing “widespread anger and international condemnation calling for its immediate halt.” Dr. Ahmad Tibi said, “We filed a petition against the racist law with the Supreme Court,” and said the Supreme Court “requires the government and the Knesset to submit their response by mid-May.” Muhammad Darousha said the law’s aim is to “achieve internal political gains,” while Sawsan Sirour said presenting the law to the Supreme Court puts judges under a deadline and that their ruling will “put them to the test.” Thaer Abu Ras said passing the law places Israel in a bind before international courts in “genocide and war crimes cases.”

“Major-General Avi Bluth, the Israeli commander with responsibility for the occupied West Bank, had not known his comments would be leaked when he boasted of the success of Israel’s policies in the occupied territory”

Al Jazeera

In Gaza, an Israeli operation to recover a single Israeli body turned a neighborhood into what residents described as a “death zone,” with tanks, drones, and “explosive robots” deployed to search for Ran Gvili, described as “the last Israeli hostage in Gaza.” The account says the operation overturned “about 200 Palestinian graves” and left “four civilians dead,” while Khamis al-Rifi told Al Jazeera that “It began with explosive robots and airstrikes... to clear the way for the tanks.” The same report cites the National Committee for Missing Persons saying “more than 10,000 Palestinians, missing and unknown, remain buried under Gaza's rubble,” and it quotes Mustafa Barghouti saying, “The inequality of treatment, contempt, and violation of all the rights of Palestinians as equal human beings are truly astonishing.” It also says that when residents approached the profaned al-Batsh cemetery, “Four martyrs fell in the region this morning,” according to al-Rifi.

In the occupied West Bank, Major-General Avi Bluth, the Israeli commander with responsibility for the occupied West Bank, said Israel’s army was “killing like we haven’t killed since 1967,” and added that it was “turning villages into conflict zones.” Al Jazeera reports that Bluth admitted Israel was practising a two-tier firing policy, saying Israel actively avoided firing at Israeli settlers throwing stones while freely firing at Palestinians doing the same, and he described Palestinian stone throwing as “terrorism, not popular or grassroots terrorism – there’s only popular [‘folk’] dancing.” The article says Israel passed legislation in March that allows for the death penalty “but only for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank,” and it says that in 2025 the military killed “42 Palestinian stone-throwers.” It also cites United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs figures that “12 Palestinians have been killed in settler attacks in the West Bank since February 28,” while “the Israeli military killed at least 226 Palestinians during the same period.”

“From Iran, which has been under a blackout since January 8, we are receiving sporadic images and bloody accounts”

Courrier international