For the first time in 65 years.. Trump agrees to the execution by firing squad of a Palestinian American

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U.S. President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of the perpetrator of a mass shooting at a military base in Texas in 2009, a method not used by the U.S. military in 65 years.

Nidal Hasan, an American of Palestinian descent, opened fire on November 5, 2009, inside a medical center at the massive Fort Hood base, to prevent soldiers from participating in what he considered an "illegal" war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The attack, carried out by someone described as a "lone wolf" affiliated with al-Qaeda, resulted in the deaths of 13 people, including 12 soldiers, and injured dozens more.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell clarified on Monday via the platform "X" that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth "recommended, and President Donald Trump approved, the execution by firing squad by a U.S. military firing squad of the convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan."

The Minister of Defense will determine the date and place of the execution. The day of reckoning has finally come for Hassan.

Nidal Hassan, a former army psychiatrist, was shot during the attack and currently suffers from partial paralysis.

A military court sentenced him to death in 2013, and he is currently held in a military prison in Kansas in the central part of the country.

This decision comes amid the ongoing debate over the application of the death penalty in the United States, following a botched execution attempt of a convict named Krista Pike last week in Tennessee in the southern part of the country.

Pike remains in critical condition in the hospital after surviving two lethal injections that were supposed to make her the first woman executed in Tennessee in over two centuries.

The use of firing squads for execution is permitted in five U.S. states. However, the U.S. military has not used this method since 1961.

Nidal Hasan chose to represent himself during his trial, without presenting evidence or calling witnesses. He never denied the charges against him, and according to the court-appointed defense attorneys, he seemed to be seeking a death sentence.

During the trial, sessions revealed that Hasan was communicating online with a figure believed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda, namely American imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

The United States has witnessed several mass shooting incidents similar to the Fort Hood incident on its soil over the past fifteen years.

In 2025, a soldier opened fire inside a military base in Georgia, injuring five other servicemen before being apprehended.

In 2019, an American sailor killed two people and injured a third at a military base in Hawaii.

In 2013, a man caused the death of 12 people and injured eight others at the "Washington Navy Yard" (a facility belonging to the U.S. Navy in Washington), before being killed by security forces.