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euro-mediterranean human rights monitor
Advocates Demand Repeal of Israeli Death Penalty Law Explicitly Targeting Palestinians
"There is nothing legal about an occupying power using the death penalty exclusively for the people it occupies," said one historian.
Mar 30, 2026
Leading international human rights groups as well as organizations in Israel swiftly demanded the repeal of a law passed by the Israeli Knesset on Monday that makes death by hanging the default punishment for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis—a law that one group called "discriminatory by design."
Those were the words of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, which petitioned the country's Supreme Court minutes after lawmakers passed an amendment to the federal penal law, "Death Penalty for Terrorists," in a vote of 62-48.
The group called on the high court to challenge the new law and said the far-right government had passed it "without legal authority" over Palestinians in the West Bank, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government aimed to illegally annex to Israel.
The Association of Civil Rights was joined by groups including Amnesty International, which has spoken out forcefully against the legislation in recent months, in demanding the death penalty law be repealed.
Amnesty said that under the new policy, Israel—which has vehemently rejected accusations of imposing apartheid policies on Palestinians—"explicitly creates two legal frameworks for the use of the death penalty in the occupied West Bank... and in Israel."
The law also does not allow for any pardons for those sentenced to death, making it "one of the world’s most extreme death penalty laws," said Amnesty.
The new law demands that Palestinians be put to death by hanging if convicted of nationalistic killings in a military court, and gives Israeli courts the option of sentencing Israeli citizens to capital punishment if they're convicted of similar crimes.
But Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute’s Center for Democratic Values and Institutions, told The Associated Press that only Palestinians will ultimately be killed under the law.
“It will apply in Israeli courts, but only to terrorist activities that are motivated by the wish to undermine the existence of Israel," Cohen told the AP. "That means Jews will not be indicted under this law."
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, noted that Israeli military courts "have a conviction rate of over 99% for Palestinian defendants and... are notorious for disregarding due process and fair trial safeguards."
"Israel is brazenly granting itself carte blanche to execute Palestinians while stripping away the most basic fair-trial safeguards,” said Guevara-Rosas.
She added that the law was passed weeks after the Israeli military attorney general dropped all charges against five Israel Defense Forces soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner—"a decision celebrated by the prime minister and several ministers."
“It speaks volumes to the extent of Israel’s dehumanization of Palestinians that this law has passed" after those charges were dropped, said Guevara-Rosas. "For years, we have seen an alarming pattern of apparent extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings of Palestinians—with the perpetrators also enjoying near-total impunity. This new law which allows for state-sanctioned executions is a culmination of such policies.”
Celebrations were seen among Netanyahu's top ministers once again on Monday, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—whose Otzma Yehudit Party initially introduced the amendment—seen clutching a bottle of champagne after the passage was announced.
Historian Assal Rad noted that much of the international coverage of the bill's passage has used "procedural language to sanitize the story and make it sound legitimate."
The law, however, "is just another way for Israel to kill Palestinians," she said.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned that "the most dangerous aspect of the new law lies in its application within a judicial system that lacks any guarantees of a fair trial for Palestinians."
"Confessions are often obtained under duress, access to effective legal representation is severely limited, the presumption of innocence is routinely ignored, and there are major restrictions on appeals or access to documents essential for the defense," said the group.
"Combined with a lack of judicial independence and integrity in proceedings, applying the death penalty in this context cannot be considered a legitimate judicial measure," the organization added. "Instead, it constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life, in direct violation of fundamental principles of international human rights law."
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Human Rights Group Warns US Gaza Plan Will Impose 'Unlawful Collective Imprisonment' of Palestinians as New Details Emerge
“The design of these proposed cities mirrors the historical model of ghettos,” said the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, which said the US plans to cram 25,000 people into areas smaller than a square kilometer.
Dec 04, 2025
A prominent international human rights organization is warning that the United States' plan for postwar Gaza will impose "unlawful collective imprisonment" on the Palestinian civilians who have survived two years of genocide.
In November, several news outlets reported on the Trump administration's plan to carve Gaza in two: a so-called “green zone” controlled by Israel and a “red zone” controlled by the militant group Hamas.
The US would construct what it called “Alternative Safe Communities” for Palestinians to live in the Israeli-controlled portion of Gaza, which is over half of the territory under the current "ceasefire" agreement.
The New York Times described these communities as "compounds" of 20,000 to 25,000 people, where Israeli officials reportedly argued they should not be allowed to leave.
The initial reporting raised fears that the US and Israel were constructing what would amount to a "concentration camp," where Palestinians would be forced to live in squalid conditions without freedom of movement.
On Wednesday, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor released new details on how Palestinians, currently facing mass displacement from their homes in the portion of the strip not occupied by Israel, would be corralled into the green zone under the US proposal.
The Geneva-based group issued a stark warning about the plan, which it said carried "grave risks, including the effective displacement of Palestinians from their homes and the transformation of large parts of Gaza into closed military zones under the direct control of the Israeli army."
“Entry and exit would be permitted only through security screening, effectively converting these sites into overcrowded detention camps that impose severe restrictions on residents’ freedom of movement and daily life."
Euro-Med's report explains that the transfer of Palestinians would be carried out using "various pressure tactics."
"This is done by creating a coercive environment in the red zone and making access to relative protection and basic services conditional on relocating to designated areas within the green zone, following extensive security screening and vetting," the report says. "This removes any genuine element of consent and places the process squarely within the scope of forced displacement prohibited under international humanitarian law."
It also provides new details on the conditions Palestinians would be subject to once they've arrived: "The plan includes the establishment of 'cities' of prefabricated container homes (caravans) in the green zone, each housing around 25,000 people within an area of no more than one square kilometer and enclosed by walls and checkpoints."
This means these Palestinian cantons would be over three times as densely populated as the Tel Aviv District, the most crowded in Israel, which has about 8,130 people per square kilometer.
"Entry and exit would be permitted only through security screening, effectively converting these sites into overcrowded detention camps that impose severe restrictions on residents’ freedom of movement and daily life," the report continues.
This is not the first proposal to use the promise of safety to lure Palestinians into an enclosed space without the right to leave.
Earlier this year, following US President Donald Trump's call for the people of Palestine to be forcibly removed from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz proposed the creation of a massive “humanitarian city” built on the ruins of Rafah that would be used as part of an “emigration plan” for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Under that plan, Palestinians would have been given “security screenings” and once inside would not be allowed to leave. Humanitarian organizations, including those inside Israel, roundly condemned the plan as essentially a “concentration camp.”
Euro-Med said that the design laid out in the new US plan "mirrors the historical model of ghettos, in which colonial and racist regimes confined specific groups to sealed areas surrounded by walls and guard posts, with movement and resources controlled externally, as seen in Europe during World War II and in other colonial contexts."
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One Month Into Ceasefire, Israel Continues 'Silent Genocide' in Gaza
A report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor detailed "a clear policy by the Israeli political and military leadership to use the ceasefire as a cover to continue genocide against Gaza’s residents."
Nov 11, 2025
A month after Hamas and Israeli officials signed off on a ceasefire deal, a leading human rights group warned that Israel is maintaining conditions in Gaza that "prevent any recovery from over 25 months of humanitarian catastrophe," while the international community is largely silent about the continued killing and destruction in the exclave.
Despite the ceasefire deal that was brokered by the Trump administration, an average of eight Palestinians are still being killed per day as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue to wage "aerial and artillery bombardment, gunfire, and the ongoing destruction of homes and buildings, particularly in the eastern areas of Khan Younis and Gaza City," according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
The Government Media Office in Gaza reported Tuesday that Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement at least 282 times, as it's claimed that Hamas has done the same by killing Israeli soldiers and failing to return the body of one of the captives who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
President Donald Trump has defended the IDF's attacks in some cases, saying an attack on October 29 that killed 109 Palestinian people, including 52 children, was "retribution" for the killing of an Israeli soldier.
With the president's tacit approval of attacks that it considers "retribution" and his insistence that the ceasefire holds, Israel has killed 242 Palestinians since the ceasefire began on October 10, including 85 children. About 619 people have been injured.
Despite the first phase of the 20-point peace plan put forward by Trump stipulating an end to all hostilities by Hamas and Israel, said the Euro-Med Monitor, "Israel continues to commit genocide against Palestinian civilians through various means."
In addition to continuing its military bombardment, Israel has not obeyed another requirement of the first phase of the deal: lifting the blockade that began in October 2023 and that has killed nearly 500 Palestinians so far.
"Israel continues to administer a deliberate policy of starvation in the Gaza Strip, having blocked the entry of approximately 70% of the aid required under the agreement," said Euro-Med Monitor. "It also controls the type of goods allowed in, systematically restricting essential food items such as meat and dairy products while flooding the markets with calorie-dense but nutrient-poor products."
Gaza's population of about 2 million people remains "in a state of controlled, chronic hunger," said the group. Child malnutrition rates remain 20% from last year despite the ceasefire.
The group released an infographic on Tuesday, detailing the devastation that continues in Gaza as Israel persists in committing a "silent genocide"—now without the sustained pressure of the international community for the attacks to stop.
The graphic notes that since Israel began its attacks:
- Nine out of every 10 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza were civilians;
- 100% of hospitals have been damaged or destroyed;
- 45,600 children have been orphaned;
- 12% of all Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, injured, detained, or are missing.
- 40,000 people now have permanent or long-term disabilities, including 21,000 children;
- 100% of the population faces acute food insecurity; and
- 100% of the population has suffered psychological trauma.
The Euro-Med Monitor also warned that Israel is continuing to block movement in both directions at the Rafah crossing, restricting civilians who are sick or wounded from getting medical care.
"These actions are not isolated incidents but part of a systematic pattern indicating a clear policy by the Israeli political and military leadership to use the ceasefire as a cover to continue genocide against Gaza’s residents," said the group. "By maintaining a disguised military assault and perpetuating killing, starvation, and systematic destruction, Israel exploits the absence of international will to protect civilians and hold perpetrators accountable."
A "grave development" included in Euro-Med Monitor's report is "the dismantling of the Gaza Strip’s geographical unity, turning it into an isolated and uninhabitable area."
Ramy Abdul, chairman of the organization, posted a video on social media of an Israeli soldier "proudly documenting" his army unit's use of excavators, "flattening what's left of northern Gaza" behind the "yellow line" to which Israeli troops were required to withdraw under the ceasefire deal.
"The continued silence of the international community and the failure to activate accountability mechanisms provide Israel with practical cover to continue committing genocide, albeit at a slower pace, as part of a consistent policy aimed at eliminating the Palestinian presence in the Gaza Strip," said Euro-Med Monitor.
The group's analysis came as Politico reported that Trump administration officials have begun privately expressing concerns that the peace deal could break down due to an inability to implement core provisions, such as deploying an "International Stabilization Force" that would officially be tasked with peacekeeping in Gaza.
"The administration took its victory lap after the initial ceasefire and hostage release, but all the hard work, the real hard work, remains," David Schenker, former assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, told Politico.
Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Jordan, and Azerbaijan have said they will not commit to contributing forces, with the latter declining to attend a recent planning meeting and saying it would not participate until a full ceasefire is in place.
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