Sgt. Elor Azariya, who faces manslaughter charges for shooting a wounded terrorist dead at point-blank range on Purim, in Hebron, is fighting an uphill battle. During the trial to date, a number of officers have testified against him, including a company commander and brigade commander, both telling the Yafeh Military Court they did not approve of his actions.

Additional testimony was heard on Monday, 5 Tammuz, from two soldiers of the Shimshon Battalion, a part of the Kfir Brigade. Sgt. M told the court that at first he thought that Elor’s actions were bad, but he later realized he acted “on instinct”, amid an awareness the wounded terrorist might have had a bomb on him that could still have been detonated.

‘M’ was one of the soldiers close to Elor at the time of the event and actually saw what occurred. He also told the court that his previous statements given to military investigators were accurate, that Elor told him that because the terrorist stabbed a soldier he deserved to die.

The court also heard that at four different times during questioning by military investigators prior to the trial, ‘M’ said that had he known what was Elor was planning to do; if he could have, he would have stopped him from firing. He admitted that he did not think Elor was going to fire at the terrorist.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)