Israeli President Isaac Herzog has expunged the criminal record of former soldier Elor Azaria, who was convicted of manslaughter in 2017 for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Herzog announced on Saturday that he had cleared the remaining period on Azaria's criminal record, acting on a request from Defence Minister Israel Katz and invoking the spirit of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

The case dates to March 2016, when Azaria — then a 20-year-old army medic — was filmed on a mobile phone shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the head as he lay on the ground. Al-Sharif had stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier but had already been shot and incapacitated by troops, and had been lying on the ground for roughly 11 minutes before Azaria fired. A military court convicted Azaria of manslaughter and sentenced him to 18 months in prison, later reduced to 14 months; he was released in May 2018 after serving nine months. During his trial, Azaria claimed he had feared al-Sharif might be wearing an explosive belt — an argument the court rejected. In his first interview after release, he said he would "act exactly the same, because that's how I needed to act."

The pardon was issued over the explicit objections of Israeli army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir, who wrote to the defence minister arguing that Azaria had "refrained from expressing remorse and taking responsibility for his actions, even a decade after his conviction." Herzog's office acknowledged the military's position but said the passage of time, the completion of his sentence, and remorse Azaria expressed in his pardon request justified allowing him to "open a new chapter in his life." The statement added that the decision "does not constitute a reassessment of the case."

The original conviction had itself proved deeply divisive. Top military generals had pressed for prosecution at a time when a series of Palestinian stabbing and car-ramming attacks had generated fear and anger across Israel, and many in the Israeli public backed Azaria. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir described Saturday's decision as "deeply moving," while Defence Minister Katz called it a signal that Israel "does not abandon our fighters." The controversy at the time forced then-Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon to resign.

Palestinian officials, human rights groups, and international bodies responded to the original case and subsequent developments with sharp criticism. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the 2016 shooting as an "extrajudicial execution" and a "war crime," while al-Sharif's family dismissed the legal proceedings as a "farce." The UN human rights office called the original sentence "excessively lenient" and warned it risked "reinforcing the culture of impunity." In 2024, the Joe Biden administration barred Azaria and his immediate family from entering the United States, citing an "extrajudicial killing." The pardon is likely to intensify longstanding debate over accountability for the use of lethal force by Israeli soldiers in the field.