Soldier who killed wounded Palestinian stabber goes home for Passover

Sgt. Elor Azaria, the IDF soldier charged with manslaughter for shooting dead a Palestinian attacker who had been neutralized in Hebron last month, was released on furlough from on-base detention to his home Friday for the Passover holiday.

He must return to his army base — where he has been held since the incident in late March — on Sunday. A military court has ordered his detention until the end of proceedings.

Azaria was welcomed home by friends and family to hugs, songs and cheers.

“Thanks for the support. Thanks to the judges who allowed him to have the holiday at home. With God’s help this whole thing will end and we’ll go back to being a normal family,” the soldier’s father, Charlie, told reporters outside the family home in Ramle. “We love Israel, we’re not enemies of the state.”

A military court indicted Azaria earlier this week for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a wounded Palestinian attacker in the West Bank.

Azaria, a 19-year-old sergeant in the Kfir infantry brigade, was also charged with inappropriate military conduct.

Some 2,000 turned out to a rally in central Tel Aviv on Tuesday in support of the soldier, calling for his release.

His name had been kept under gag order until late Monday afternoon, when a court gave the okay to publish his identity after a request from the soldier’s lawyers.

The shooting took place last month in Hebron, a West Bank city that has been a focal point of a seven-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Two Palestinians stabbed and wounded a soldier before troops killed one of them and shot and wounded the other. A video later showed one of the attackers, Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, still alive minutes later before Azaria shot him in the head.

“The accused violated the rules of engagement without operational justification as the terrorist was lying on the ground wounded and represented no immediate threat for the accused or others who were present,” a copy of the indictment said. “By his acts, the accused unlawfully caused the death of the terrorist Abdul Sharif.”

Warning: Graphic video

Video of the incident in Hebron spread widely online and the soldier was arrested, with rights groups labeling it a summary execution.

The case has led to a major controversy in Israel and has sparked political tensions, with far-right supporters and politicians calling for the soldier’s release, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief Gadi Eisenkot underlining that the soldier’s action was unacceptable and condemning it.

The lawyer for the soldier told the Jaffa Military Court that the defendant believed children were approaching for a Purim parade when he opened fire.

“There was a large information gap between the soldier and extensively experienced officers who had all the information,” the lawyer said. “He thought that the Adloyada [Purim parade] would soon be starting and the children of Hebron would enter the arena. He did not have all the information in front of him.”