Israeli president pardons soldier who killed wounded Palestinian attacker

Israel's President Isaac Herzog issued a pardon on Saturday to Elor Azaria, a former army combat medic whose killing of a badly wounded Palestinian attacker a decade ago split public opinion in the country. The decision followed a recommendation from Defence Minister Israel Katz.

In 2016, Azaria approached Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in Hebron as the Palestinian man lay on the ground, unarmed and severely wounded after stabbing a soldier. A bystander's mobile phone video captured Azaria shooting al-Sharif in the head. A military court convicted Azaria of manslaughter in 2017, and he served two-thirds of an 18-month sentence.

Herzog's office said the pardon reflected both the time that had passed and the spirit of the approaching Yom Kippur holiday. It noted that Azaria, who was 20 at sentencing, expressed sorrow in his pardon request, though he had earlier described the shooting as an "operational error." The president's office stressed the decision does not amount to a reassessment of the case.

Katz called the pardon a "right, humane, and fitting decision," saying Azaria had been engaged in a "complex operational mission" at the time. However, the military's chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, had written to the defence minister opposing the pardon, according to Israeli media reports.

The conviction was unusual in that a military court ruled against a soldier for lethal action taken in the field. Senior generals had pushed for Azaria's prosecution at the time, while many members of the public backed him amid a wave of stabbing and car-ramming attacks by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for his pardon after the verdict, and the controversy contributed to the resignation of then-defence minister Moshe Ya'alon.

On Saturday, hard-line National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said clearing the record of "someone who killed a terrorist" made him "emotional and very happy." Some Palestinians and human rights groups had previously called Azaria's sentence too lenient, noting prosecutors had sought three to five years. Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Karaka had described the original sentencing as a "joke."