PALESTINE — Israel approved a new death penalty law on March 30, 2026, that applies only to Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in acts of terror. The law is to take effect by the end of April 2026 and will apply to Palestinians from the West Bank who are tried in Israeli military courts.

The law does not impose the death penalty on Jewish Israelis convicted of killing Palestinians. Palestinian prisoners are tried and sentenced in Israeli military courts rather than civilian courts. In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers are subject to Israeli civil law while Palestinians are tried under Israeli military law in courts run by Israeli soldiers and officers.

The United Nations human rights chief said the new law could constitute a war crime. The Palestinian Authority said the bill is a war crime against the Palestinian people and violates the Fourth Geneva Convention's protections for individuals and safeguards for fair trials.

Before the bill's approval, the conviction rate for Palestinians tried in Israeli military courts was about 96 percent, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem. International law permits Israel to use military courts in territory it occupies.

"The law is worded in such a way that it targets only Palestinians. And it will turn the killing of Palestinians into an accepted and common tool of punishment through several mechanisms," B'Tselem said. "In many cases, these convictions are based on 'confessions' obtained through pressure and torture during interrogations," the group added.

As of early April 2026, more than 9,600 Palestinians were in Israeli custody, according to Addameer, which placed the figure at nearly 10,000 across prisons in Israel and occupied territory. Of those held, 3,532 were administrative detainees held without charge or trial, 342 were children, 84 were women, and 119 were serving life sentences.

Administrative detention is an Israeli policy to hold Palestinians without charge or trial for six-month periods that may be renewed indefinitely. Israel says administrative detention allows authorities to hold suspects while gathering evidence.

According to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, since 1967, Israeli forces have detained an estimated one million Palestinians, or about 20 percent of the Palestinian population. Statistically, one in five Palestinians has been imprisoned at some point since 1967.