Oct. 7 terrorist trials face delays, Rothman calls to accelerate process for early 2027 indictments

Implementing the law to prosecute perpetrators of the October 7 Hamas massacre has faced recent setbacks, with estimates suggesting indictments for terrorists could be delayed until 2028, though MK Simcha Rothman called on Wednesday for the process to be accelerated.

He called for the initial indictments against the perpetrators of the attacks to be filed in the first half of 2027.

“It is an attainable target, and I call on you to make every effort to achieve it,” Rothman said.

Rothman, who chairs the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, where the discussion took place, made the remarks to a panel of lawmakers and representatives from the Defense Ministry, Israel Prison Service, and the State Attorney’s Office, who provided an update on the ongoing process of implementing the legislation.

The Knesset committee meeting was held on the third anniversary of the massacre.

There has not yet been a full accounting for the events of October 7 in a criminal courtroom. Special legislation has been passed for military tribunals that has not yet been implemented.

The Knesset passed a law in May to prosecute terrorists involved in the attacks, granting authority to impose the death penalty and conduct public trials for the perpetrators of the attacks at a Jerusalem military court.

Later, in June, the government approved a budget of over NIS 1 billion to carry out the military tribunals, as the law’s proposal consists of a broad framework for implementing the trials and building a full complex for them to take place.

Committee meeting vowed to resolve budget issues in prosecution

The committee meeting discussed delays in moving forward with the prosecutions, largely due to stalled budget issues.

MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu), who sponsored the bill with Rothman, vowed to resolve any existing issues holding back the legislation from being implemented.

“If there are problems, we will solve them, and if we need to bang on the table, we will, but we want results. The people of Israel deserve answers,” she told the panel.

“We did what we needed to do; we passed the law, and now every official needs to put personal whims and disagreements aside and rise to the occasion. Regardless of the election results and who sits in this chair, we will not let up. We owe this to the families,” she added.

Building infrastructure for October 7 military tribunal is underway

In June, Rothman said bulldozers had begun preparing the Atarot site in northern Jerusalem, where the dedicated military tribunal is slated to be built. The announcement marked the first public sign that the law had crossed into the implementation stage.

The infrastructure to be built for the trials includes the court complex, prosecution offices, and an IDF headquarters facility.

The legislation to prosecute the terrorists also includes ensuring that key moments of the trial for the military courts can be filmed and broadcast on a dedicated website.

It establishes provisions concerning judicial panels, public access to proceedings, audiovisual documentation of hearings, and the broadcasting of parts of the proceedings to the public.

The law further proposes establishing specific arrangements for appointing judges to the court, including sitting and retired judges.

It calls for establishing special arrangements regarding victims’ rights, legal representation for defendants, and the conduct of hearings via video conference.

Military tribunal likened to Eichmann trial

The legislation also proposes the creation of a special guard unit to secure the military court in Jerusalem.

It mandates administrative preparations for conducting the proceedings, periodic reporting to the Knesset, and the promulgation of regulations concerning the implementation of the death sentence.

Capital punishment has only been carried out twice in the history of the State of Israel. The last person to be executed by Israel was Nazi Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann, who was hanged in 1962. He was the only person ever executed following a civilian trial in the Jewish state. (The other was the case of an IDF captain, Meir Tobianski, hastily court-martialed and executed by firing squad for treason in 1948 but posthumously exonerated by David Ben-Gurion and reburied with full military honors.)

Lawmakers, from both the coalition and opposition, who sponsored the bill likened it to the Eichmann trials in 1961, which broadcast live and recorded testimonies of Holocaust survivors throughout Israel and numerous other countries before Eichmann’s hanging took place.

During the October 7 massacre, Hamas terrorists brutally massacred over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 hostages into Gaza. The attacks included sexual violence and rape.