Israeli President Pardons Soldier in Palestinian Killing

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, pardoned former combat medic Elor Azaria, erasing the rest of the criminal record from his 2017 manslaughter conviction for shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in Hebron in 2016. Al-Sharif had stabbed a soldier; Azaria then approached him as he lay wounded and unarmed, and a cellphone video showed Azaria firing into his head after he had been incapacitated about 11 minutes. Azaria, 20 at sentencing, received 18 months, served nine, and was released in May 2018. He said he feared an explosive belt; judges rejected the claim. In his first interview after release he said he would act exactly the same because that is how he needed to act. Herzog’s office cited time elapsed, sorrow Azaria expressed in his request, and the spirit of Yom Kippur beginning Sunday evening, and stated the decision does not constitute a reassessment of the case. Defense Minister Israel Katz called it a right, humane, and fitting decision after a complex operational mission. Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir wrote in July that the army opposed the request because Azaria had refrained from expressing remorse and taking responsibility even a decade after conviction. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted that canceling the record of someone who eliminated a terrorist was deeply moving and joyful, said the record should never have existed if rules of engagement had differed, and urged a pardon for Benjamin Netanyahu too. Netanyahu had called for a pardon after the verdict; then-defense minister Moshe Yaalon resigned amid pressure from the case. Palestinian minister Issa Karaka had called the original sentence a joke.