The IDF is considering demoting a soldier from the elite Magellan unit who was stabbed last week by a 16-year-old girl terrorist who was armed with only a screwdriver and knife, Israel Hayom reported Friday. The soldier ran away from the girl without trying to engage her. The investigation of the incident has not yet been completed because the soldier has been in hospital, and a final decision in his case should be reached when he is discharged.
The incident took place on Thursday, June 1, in Mevo Dotan. Shortly after 9:30 AM, a female terrorist tried to stab with a screwdriver and a knife soldiers standing at the community’s gate. Footage from a security camera clearly shows the 16-year-old girl approaching the soldiers, they all disappear behind a building and then, in Benny Hill fashion, the girl is seen chasing after the soldier whom she stabbed.
The incident seems to prove the claims made following the Sgt. Elor Azaria trial—in which a soldier was punished for shooting a “neutralized” terrorist—namely soldiers would avoid using their weapons against “vulnerable” terrorists for fear of prosecution.
The elite unit soldier did not try to confront the terrorist at all, but instead tried to avoid the complicated question of whether or not he should use his weapon on a teenage girl wielding a knife and a screwdriver by fleeing from her. The person who in the end neutralized the terrorist was a soldier from a different unit, with much less combat experienced than the girl’s victim.
The soldier, who was lightly injured in the stomach, was evacuated to the Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera. The 16-year-old terrorist, from the village of Ya’bad, south of Jenin, was shot and neutralized and was evacuated to hospital with critical injuries.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Office issued a statement saying: “Following the incident, an operational investigation found that, contrary to what was expected, not everyone present at the event had acted to neutralize the terrorist as is required and expected of fighters in an elite unit. On Sunday the soldier will return to the unit, and his commanders will conduct an investigation in which they will discuss his continued service.”
IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Gadi Eizenkot is on the record saying he would not want a soldier to empty a magazine on a girl with scissors.