Oshra Azariya, mother of Elor Azariya, spoke about reports of plans to train soldiers in the Kfir unit for hand-to-hand combat with knife-wielding terrorists.
"First of all, I'm scared for the safety of our precious boys, who now need to protect themselves with only their bare hands from these crazy murderers. They no longer have any advantage over the terrorists," she said.
"Second of all, I'm wondering if the IDF will train its commanders to take responsibility for our children, who we sent to the IDF because we believed the army would watch over them and bring them back to us safely," Azariya said. "The new regulations seem to be another irresponsible move, joining the rest of the army's failures. Because of these failures, my son has been sitting in jail for more than nine months."
Elor Azariya was imprisoned for shooting an Arab who was believed to be wearing a suicide belt. Though forensic experts clearly said the terrorist's death was not caused by Azariya's bullet, political pressure has forced the trial to continue, potentially harming the State of Israel and the IDF.
Azariya's case will be decided on Wednesday.