Israeli president pardons Elor Azaria over 2016 killing of wounded Palestinian

What happened?

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has pardoned Elor Azaria, the former military medic whose conviction for killing a wounded, incapacitated Palestinian attacker in 2016 deeply divided the nation.

The decision, announced on Saturday, wipes away Azaria’s criminal record a decade after the shooting in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Herzog’s office said the president acted on the recommendation of Defence Minister Israel Katz, citing the years that have passed and the spirit of the upcoming Yom Kippur holiday.

The presidency stressed that the move does not represent a "reassessment of the case". In his request for clemency, Azaria reportedly expressed regret and referred to the shooting as an "operational error".

The Hebron shooting and trial

The incident took place in March 2016, after 21-year-old Abdel Fattah al-Sharif stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier. Al-Sharif was shot and left lying on the road, unarmed and severely wounded.

Azaria, then a 20-year-old combat medic, walked up to the incapacitated man and shot him in the head. The shooting was captured on a mobile phone video by a local activist. The footage went viral, drawing international condemnation and triggering a fierce debate inside Israel.

While top military commanders insisted on prosecuting Azaria to preserve the army's ethical standards, much of the Israeli public and several right-wing politicians rallied to his side. Benjamin Netanyahu, who was prime minister at the time, publicly backed calls for a pardon even before the trial concluded. The political fallout was so severe that the defence minister at the time, Moshe Ya'alon, resigned under pressure.

In 2017, a military court found Azaria guilty of manslaughter—a highly unusual conviction for an active-duty soldier. Though prosecutors sought a three-to-five-year term, the court sentenced him to 18 months. He was released in 2018 after serving two-thirds of his sentence. In his first interview after leaving prison, Azaria remained unrepentant, declaring he would "act exactly the same" if faced with the situation again.

Reaction to the pardon

The decision to clear his record has reopened deep political fractures. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hardline nationalist, praised the president's move, writing that "cancelling the criminal record of someone who killed a terrorist makes me emotional and very happy".

However, the pardon went ahead despite opposition from senior military figures. Israeli media reported that the military's chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, had written to the defence minister advising him not to recommend clemency.

For Palestinians and human rights advocates, the pardon represents the final chapter in a process they have long dismissed as a mockery of justice. When Azaria was first sentenced, Issa Karaka, then the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs, called the 18-month sentence "a joke".