Soldier Elor Azariya in court
Soldier Elor Azariya in courtFlash 90

"A 'twisted ideology' drove an Israeli soldier to fatally shoot a Palestinian assailant in the head as he lay subdued in the road," the US news site Vice claims, based on a classified IDF report on the recent incident.

"A few seconds before the attack, as came up in the investigation with Sergeant M, (Azariya) told him that 'a terrorist that wounded their friend needs to die," the site reported, adding that "Sergeant M tried to calm the soldier down telling him, 'Relax, our wounded friend will be just fine.'"

Despite this, Azariya still shot the terrorist in the head. Later, he told his commander that "He's a terrorist, he needs to die."

Vice claims Azariya gave different explanations to different people, telling the investigators that he feared the terrorist had a bomb.

"The facts speak for themselves," said one investigator. "The company medic took the decision to shoot the terrorist due to a twisted ideology."

Another criticized the failure to provide the terrorist with medical treatment. "We need to address the subject of treating terrorists after they get neutralized immediately," he wrote. "We need to increase our moral attention to it and we need to demand our soldiers do exactly what we expect them to do in such events."

The concerns also took into account the incident's effect on the IDF's image. "Incidents such as these harm the strength and power of the IDF and leave a stain on our daily activities," said another.

The senior investigator summed up his opinion by saying: "I want to emphasize that the shooting at the terrorist while he is on the floor with almost no movement, and is bleeding for a few minutes after the terror attack happened, is a significantly immoral action and there is no good explanation for this... The shooting serves the Palestinian claims about executions and by this hurts the legitimacy of our actions."