Lt. Col. (res.) attorney Maurice Hirsch, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and one of the figures involved in drafting Israel’s new law for prosecuting Hamas Nukhba terrorists, says Israel is preparing for one of the largest legal proceedings in its history.
According to Hirsch, Israel’s civilian court system cannot by itself handle the massive number of Hamas terrorists expected to stand trial for crimes including massacre, rape, torture, and murder committed during the October 7 attacks. As a result, Israel plans to establish a special military court designed to operate in a framework as close as possible to a civilian legal system.
“This is not a lone terrorist acting independently,” Hirsch explained. “This was a planned and coordinated attack led by Hamas.”
He said the trials are expected to rely on survivor testimony, body-camera footage, forensic evidence, intercepted operational materials, and interrogations of captured terrorists. The hearings are expected to be conducted publicly, similar in some respects to the historic trial of Adolf Eichmann.
