Israel’s parliament has passed the first reading of a bill that would introduce the death penalty for “terrorism”.

The amendment to the penal code, proposed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, was approved by 39 votes to 16 in the 120-member Knesset on Monday, signalling it has support from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

According to the draft text, the death penalty would apply to individuals who kill Israelis out of “racist” motives and “with the aim of harming the State of Israel and the revival of the Jewish people in its land”, The Times of Israel reported.

Critics said the wording means that in practice, the death penalty would apply almost exclusively to Palestinians who kill Jews, not to Jewish hardliners who carry out attacks on Palestinians.

Attempts to introduce similar legislation have failed in the past. The current bill must pass a second and third reading before becoming law.

A statement from the National Security Committee that includes the bill’s explanatory note said: “Its purpose is to cut off terrorism at its root and create a heavy deterrent.”

Ben-Gvir welcomed the result of the vote on social media and said his Jewish Power party is “making history”.

Human rights groups have condemned Ben-Gvir’s long-running push for such legislation, warning that it targets Palestinians specifically and deepens systemic discrimination.

While the death penalty still exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist state. Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann was the last person executed by the country when he was put to death in 1962.

The vote on the bill took place during the United States-brokered ceasefire, which came into effect last month,  aimed at ending Israel’s war on Gaza.

Israel is accused of violating the ceasefire with consistent attacks on Gaza, while Israeli settlers and the military have regularly carried out deadly assaults across the occupied West Bank.

Israel claims Hamas is breaking the terms of the ceasefire and remains a threat to its military in Gaza.

Responding to the parliamentary vote, the Palestinian group said the proposed law “embodies the ugly fascist face of the rogue Zionist occupation and represents a blatant violation of international law”.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates called the proposed bill “new form of escalating Israeli extremism and criminality against the Palestinian people”.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently being held in Israeli prisons.

Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations assert that they are subject to torture, starvation and medical neglect that has led to the deaths of numerous detainees.

[Aljazeera]

Ukraine has hit back at Russia’s attempts to disable its energy infrastructure with air strikes that succeeded in disrupting power and heating in two cities across the border.

Kyiv’s drone and missile attacks cut power and heating on Sunday in the Russian cities of Belgorod near the border and Voronezh nearly 300km (186 miles) away.

In Belgorod, local Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said missile strikes caused “serious damage” to power and heating systems supplying the city, affecting some 20,000 households.

Alexander Gusev, regional governor of Voronezh, said several drones were electronically jammed over the city – home to more than one million people – and sparked a fire at a local utility facility that was quickly extinguished.

A Russian Defence Ministry statement made no mention of either the Voronezh or Belgorod areas, reporting 44 Ukrainian drones were destroyed or intercepted by Russian forces during the night.

Local authorities in the Rostov region also reported an hours-long blackout in the city of Taganrog, home to some 240,000 people, blaming it on an emergency shutdown of a power line. Local media reported a nearby transformer substation caught fire.

Meanwhile, Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in overnight attacks on Ukraine, targeting substations that supply two nuclear power plants and killing seven people, Ukrainian officials told Reuters news agency.

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Saturday that it launched “a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons” on weapons production plants and gas and energy facilities in response to Kyiv’s earlier strikes on Russia.

On Sunday, the northeastern region of Kharkiv was still struggling to recover from Russia’s attacks, which left about 100,000 people without power.

State-owned energy company Tsentrenergo said the attacks were the largest on its facilities since the start of the war in February 2022, and it halted operations at plants in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.

Moscow launched 69 drones at energy facilities across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, of which 34 were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy infrastructure as United States-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war appear to be leading nowhere fast.

Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, lights, and running water for a fourth consecutive winter in what amounts to a weaponisation of the extreme cold.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Sunday that he’s ready to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the war on Ukraine and mend bilateral ties.

Lavrov repeated that peace can’t be achieved without “taking Russian interests into account” – a phrase Moscow has used to signal it is standing firm in its maximalist demands for Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded Kyiv withdraw troops from the entirety of the four regions Moscow claims as part of Russia: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – which make up the Donbas – plus Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said some Russian-occupied territories might be acknowledged as temporarily seized, but has ruled out any official recognition, saying he does not have a mandate to give away territory.

Lavrov’s move comes weeks after efforts to organise a summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump were abruptly cancelled.

[Aljazeera]