Bleichberd described the scene of the incident in question: “The whole scene was a giant mess. Something we weren’t used to. I’m not the Chief of Staff, but I’ve been at many incidents like this...I identified the terrorist moving in his black coat, and I corrected my report, that there was one terrorist alive. And then there was the shot. I reported it as a justified shooting.”
He related that “conduct was correct. As far as we were concerned, fears of an explosion were over [and] the incident was finished.”
Regarding the apparent contradiction between his testimony to military police and the testimony of the Brigade Commander, Bleichberd said: “At the moment of shooting, I stood by Azariya, a meter, half a meter from him. The Brigade Commander, Yariv Ben-Ezra, arrived, I briefed him on the situation and told him that the two terrorists had not been killed simultaneously, rather one had been killed first and then the second - the one with the bomb - over the course of several minutes, with the intention that, if a video of the event would come out, they would know that the two terrorists were not killed simultaneously, so there wouldn’t be embarrassment later.
“I have no interest in explaining the Brigade Commander. I had no idea that Elor was the company medic, as the Brigade Commander testified. I explained to the Brigade Commander that there was shooting at the beginning and additional shooting some time later. I assess that he had already received that report, because he arrived about half an hour after the incident.”
“If they had been managing the scene correctly, nothing that happened would have happened. A live terrorist is a frightening thing. I must confess, it is very frightening. It is not pleasant. A terrorist who is going to die will do everything to take as many innocent civilians along with him.”
Later today, the pathologist Dr. Maia Gips is also to return to the stand, in an attempt to disprove the dramatic testimony of Prof. Yehuda Hiss during which he claimed that pathological evidence showed that the terrorist had died from an air bubble in his heart, and not - as had been previously been assumed - from Azariya’s bullet.