Israeli military tribunal to try Hamas terrorists involved in Oct 7 attacks

Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara announced Monday that a military tribunal led by Military Advocate General Itay Offir will prosecute more than 300 Hamas Nukhba terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre that killed 1,200 Israelis.

“All relevant authorities will continue to cooperate in handling the case and act to bring the terrorists to justice,” Baharav-Miara stated after meeting Offrir and State Attorney Amit Aisman.

Charges against the terrorists could include genocide, harming Israel’s territorial sovereignty, initiating war and terrorist offenses amid debates of potential death penalty. 

Israeli Southern District Attorney Erez Padan announced weeks ago that prosecutors had prepared indictments based on probes of the atrocities committed by those captured. 

“This is an unprecedented investigation in scope, unlike anything seen in Israel and, I believe, in the world,” Padan assessed.

There is also a proposal to establish a ministerial steering committee tasked with coordinating the government’s preparations for trying terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 atrocities. The committee would be led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and include senior officials such as Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

The bill to prosecute Hamas Oct. 7 terrorists, was initiated in October 2024 by the lawmakers Simcha Rothman of the coalition party Religious Zionism and Yulia Malinovsky of opposition party. Yisrael Beitenu. At the time, Malinovsky criticized the Israeli government for not prioritizing the prosecution of Hamas war criminals. 

"The government had a whole year to prepare for prosecuting those involved, but failed to make it a priority," Malinovsky said. While being part of the Israeli coalition government, Rothman agreed that more legal measures were necessary against the Hamas terrorists. 

As the bill was advancing in 2025, Rothman explained that the bill aimed to provide Israel with legal tools that it lacked to deal with the Oct. 7 war crimes. 

“When it comes to the Nukhba terrorists, from a legal standpoint, the State of Israel remains stuck in a mindset that predates October 7. The current legal tools are inadequate and irrelevant for addressing an act of genocide and mass murder,” Rothman assessed.

“Anyone trying to force this into the framework of regular criminal law is destroying the entire legal process. As proof, up until now, not even a single indictment has been filed. That’s why we must fundamentally change the legal structure,” the conservative lawmaker added. 

Former Israeli deputy attorney general Roi Scheindorf predicted that the trial of the Hamas terrorists would be the most important in Israeli history since the Jerusalem trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who was convicted in the early 1960s for his role in the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

“The State of Israel has never before dealt with crimes and an investigation on this scale,” Sheindorf assessed. “This will be one of the most important trials to take place in Israel."

Eichmann is to date the only person who was sentenced to death by the Israeli judicial system.