The Southern District Attorney’s Office announced its intention to file the first 22 indictments against terrorists who participated in the massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
A year and a half after the October 7 massacre, the Southern District Attorney’s Office has informed the Attorney General about the formulation of indictments against 22 terrorists who participated in the massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed.
According to the report, the formulation of the indictments was made possible thanks to new materials obtained in recent months by the Military Intelligence and Shin Bet from within the Gaza Strip. The State Attorney’s Office asked the Attorney General to promote nine new bills for the trials of terrorists.
It was also reported that the US is a partner in the efforts to bring the terrorists to justice and that a major indictment may be filed against hundreds of terrorists involved in the massacre in order to position the trial as a historic event.
The defense establishment noted that much of the evidence that makes it possible to formulate the indictments, including documents and visual materials, was obtained thanks to the expansion of the fighting in Gaza before the ceasefire and the seizure of media materials and computers in Gaza.
A police source said that “there are detained terrorists that the Shin Bet knew to tell us that as soon as it entered a certain area in Gaza, for example, Rafah, ‘we will bring you the evidence about them from there’ – and it did. I do not remember such an incident in which a criminal investigation and the filing of indictments were so affected by the progress of active fighting by the IDF.”
About 300 terrorists are detained in Israel who are accused of having been involved in the massacre. The investigation team established for this purpose in Lahav 433 collected testimonies from about 1,700 survivors of the massacre and 400 security forces personnel to consolidate the case.
At the same time, the State Attorney’s Office is are requesting that bills be advanced that would enable the conduct of trials against the terrorists – including a proposal to hold trials when terrorists are not present in the courtroom but participate in the hearing via video conference, and a proposal to hold hearings in the absence of the accused terrorist and his defense attorney.
