Father of freed hostage, sworn in as MK, files bill to cap hostage deals at one terrorist per captive

Knesset member Tzvika Mor of the Religious Zionist Party, whose son Eitan was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and held in Gaza for 738 days, has filed a bill that would limit future hostage deals to one terrorist released per captive, JNS reports.

Mor said his staff submitted the bill at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, while he was in the Knesset plenum taking his oath of office. "I couldn't wait. Nor did I want to," he wrote on X.

Under the bill, no negotiations could begin until an international body meets the hostages and reports on their condition. In wartime, the limit would rise to as many as five terrorists per hostage. Terrorists "with blood on their hands" would never be freed, and neither would those who have served less than two-thirds of their sentences or those freed in an earlier deal who returned to terrorism.

Mor said the bill builds on the work of former MK Ohad Tal and on the 2011 recommendations of the Shamgar Committee, which urged Israel to toughen its terms in hostage talks but was never fully adopted. In its 2023 and 2025 deals with Hamas, Israel released thousands of terrorists, many convicted of deadly attacks, in exchange for the hostages and the bodies of slain captives.