The civilian-court indictments seem to preclude capital punishment and may establish the legal scaffolding for prosecuting hundreds more Hamas prisoners.
(April 20, 2025 / JNS) Israeli prosecutors have completed draft indictments against 22 alleged Hamas perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacres in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
The report about the indictments—the first of Oct. 7 perpetrators—suggests authorities have resolved to prosecute the suspects in civilian courts, which may lack the authority to sentence terrorists to death, instead of military tribunals that have that authority.
The indictments provide the legal scaffolding for prosecuting additional suspects in atrocities and other crimes committed by the thousands of terrorists who invaded Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting another 251.