A Mashav Channel poll shows 81% of Israeli Jews support executing Hamas Nukhba terrorists as Knesset advances death penalty bill.
A new Mashav Channel poll, conducted by the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, shows an overwhelming and unprecedented 81% of Israel’s Jewish public supports applying the death penalty to Hamas’s elite Nukhba terrorists — the monsters responsible for the most sadistic atrocities of October 7.
Only 11% oppose the measure, and another 8% remain undecided. The results were released as the Knesset pushes forward with a historic death penalty bill for terrorists, which passed its first reading this week and has ignited both public passion and political debate.
Rabbi Cherlow: “Some people have forfeited the image of God.”
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of Tzohar’s Ethics Department, said the massive support is entirely understandable given the unfathomable cruelty of the Nukhba attackers.
Yet he issued an important moral warning: the death penalty must not be applied automatically or without judicial discretion.
“We deeply believe that human beings are created in the image of God,” he said.
“But there are also people who have lost that image — and when they act as the Nukhba did, they are deserving of death.”
Still, Rabbi Cherlow cautioned that blanket legislation may pose serious moral and practical dangers.
Concerns: Deterrence, Martyrdom, and Moral Character
Cherlow noted that many experts believe capital punishment does not increase deterrence — and might backfire by turning terrorists into martyrs, provoking more violence and endangering additional Jewish lives.
He emphasized the irreversible nature of executions:
“If a mistake occurs — it’s terrible and tragic.”
He also warned that institutionalizing executions could create an entire bureaucratic structure inside Israeli institutions that does not align with the moral identity of Israeli society.
For Nukhba Terrorists, the Verdict Is Clear
Despite these concerns, Rabbi Cherlow made one point unmistakably clear: for the Nukhba forces, who carried out “cruel, deliberate, and clear” acts of mass murder, torture and rape, the death penalty is the only punishment that satisfies justice, morality, and national self-preservation.
But he insisted that automatic sentencing — a law that forces judges to impose death without consideration — would be a mistake:
“Not because I want to protect them,” Rabbi Cherlow said.
“But because I want to protect us.”
