TEL AVIV, September 20, 2026 (WAFA) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog has granted a pardon to former Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, clearing the remainder of his criminal record over the 2016 killing of wounded Palestinian Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in Hebron.

Herzog signed the decision on Saturday, September 19, accepting Azaria’s request to shorten the period before his criminal record was automatically cleared. The decision took effect immediately and means the record will be cleared six years earlier than it otherwise would have been, according to the Israeli president’s office.

The Israeli president's office said Herzog considered the circumstances surrounding the request, the passage of time since the incident, the fact that Azaria had served his sentence, changes in his personal and family circumstances, and his desire to remove employment obstacles and begin a new chapter in his life.  

The case dates back to March 24, 2016, when Azaria, then serving as an Israeli military medic, shot al-Sharif in the head in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. Al-Sharif had been wounded and was lying on the ground after he and another Palestinian had attacked Israeli soldiers with a knife. A video recorded the shooting and became central evidence in the subsequent case.

An Israeli military court convicted Azaria of manslaughter in January 2017 and sentenced him to 18 months in prison. He served nine months before being released early in May 2018. The conviction was widely debated in Israel and became a prominent case concerning the conduct of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.

The decision clears the remaining criminal-record consequences of the conviction while leaving the original court judgment intact. It also comes more than a decade after the killing of al-Sharif, which remains one of the most widely publicized cases involving the prosecution of an Israeli soldier for the killing of a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank.

M.N