The government’s legal advisor, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, and State Attorney Amit Isman published an announcement yesterday evening regarding preparations for the trials of the Hamas terrorists caught in Israel after October 7.
"The State of Israel will not put up with the murder, kidnapping, and injury of civilians and members of the security forces, and with the destruction of communities," it said. "Besides the activity on the operational and political level, among other things for the return of the abductees, intensive activity has been carried out in the legal field since October 7.
"The activity is carried out from an overall view of the criminal terrorist attack, in all its aspects: national and international," the statement said. "This, with the aim of investigating and conducting legal proceedings against those who carried out these atrocities, planned them and were involved in them, wherever their place of residence may be."
According to their statements, the State of Israel will work to prosecute terrorists who have been caught or will be caught and will demand punishments that reflect the severity of the atrocities committed. "This is an unusual and unprecedented event in its scope, and the law enforcement system must deal with the challenges of the complex investigation of the criminal acts of terrorism, as well as with the complex legal issues that arise from these acts."
For obvious reasons, primarily the desire not to disrupt the ongoing investigations, it is not possible to detail the activities being carried out on this issue. It can be said at this stage, however, that the atrocities are being investigated in close cooperation with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the Israel Police, and the IDF, and that the investigation is being done under the close supervision of the state attorney and his staff, under the supervision of the attorney-general.
Baharav-Miara and Isman revealed that they had established joint and united work teams of the various bodies, in which the most senior and experienced officials in the law enforcement system are participating. The teams regularly report to them on the progress of the work at the investigative and legal level, nationally and internationally.
In the meantime, the work of collecting evidence (including digital media) from all the scenes is centralized by the Israel Police, and for this purpose, it has assigned experienced forces, unprecedented in their scope, led by the police's head of the investigation and intelligence division. At the same time as the collection of evidence progresses, the Justice Ministry—the legal advisory system for the government and the state attorney's office—is promoting beneficial solutions to all the complex legal issues and questions that arise.
According to them, there are thousands of victims as well as a wide range of scenes where horrific acts of terrorism were committed, and extensive efforts are being made to optimally collect all the necessary evidence, in the most professional, fast, and sensitive way possible.
The largest terrorist attack in the history of the State of Israel
The task of identifying the areas and locating the missing, and of investigating the terrorists, bringing them to justice, and punishing them with all severity, is a task of national and international importance, Baharav-Miara and Isman said.
Their statement that in the largest terrorist attack in the history of the State of Israel, thousands of terrorists carried out mass and systematic massacres of civilians and soldiers, which included, according to the information in the hands of the investigating authorities: torture, abuse, rape, burning people alive, mutilation of bodies, destruction of settlements and looting. At the same time, the terrorist organizations fired indiscriminate rocket fire at civilian population concentrations in Israel.
"The dimensions of the destruction and devastation are enormous and also included the abduction of over 240 people to the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them civilians, including toddlers, children, women, and the elderly, and the murder of over 1,400 civilians and members of the security forces, including citizens of about forty foreign countries. Thousands more were injured," it said.
During the fighting, the security forces eliminated many of the terrorists, but others who were involved in the murderous attacks were captured.