Nitzah Shmueli, the mother of slain Border Police officer Barel Hadarya Shmueli, responded to the results of a an IDF investigation of the Gaza border shooting which killed her son.
In an interview with Ulpan Shishi, Nitzah said, "My entire life is Barel. I can't hold the phone in my hand. I can't see the house. I can't see his room. It's all alive. My son died in the hospital. I didn't see him even once. It's impossible to digest."
"And why? Because of the failure. Today I know that all of the practices and all of the ranges and the training went down the drain. I don't believe in the army and I don't believe in the government, and I don't believe in anyone."
"Barel was everything, everything," she continued. "An actor, a singer, funny, and a fighter. In every place he was, he would star. When he played soccer I knew he was my responsibility. When he was in a pre-military academy, he was my responsibility. But when I signed with the army, I handed him over to the State, and there was no one to watch over him."
"Even now, I don't understand how this was responsible. It's a failure. I have a lot of anger in me. I want someone external to investigate. I don't trust the IDF. The IDF is already not the Israel Defense Forces. I am a bereaved family, not because of war, but because of murder. The moment I hear the commanders and the brigade commander telling me, 'We didn't know that the terrorist hid a gun in his underwear,' it really angered me.".