After reviewing the case as promised, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott has reduced the sentenced of Elor Azariya by four months.

Azariya, who served as a soldier until recently, was found guilty of manslaughter in the killing death of a disarmed terrorist in Hebron after the terrorist had been neutralized. Azariya appealed the conviction and lost. He was planning an appeal to the to the High Court but decided to drop it, and rather express remorse for his actions and file with Eizenkott to respond mercifully after the IDF commander announced that if asked to weigh in on the sentence, he would give it serious consideration.

In the document bearing his decision, Eizenkott writes that in an act of “chessed and rachamim”, he reduced four months from the 18-month manslaughter sentence and Azariya will now serve 14 months in prison for his manslaughter conviction.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)