On Tuesday a knife wielding female Arab terrorist approached a hitchhiking post at the Gitai Avisar junction in Samaria, an incident that ended in her death. However, the enclosed dashboard camera record of the incident reveals a troubling fact about the encounter: throughout the incident, it is painfully obvious that the two armed IDF soldiers are afraid to shoot the attacker.
They are afraid – but they are not afraid of the terrorist. They are afraid to use their weapon against her and they do everything to avoid having to pull the trigger.
It takes the two soldiers a full 10 seconds, during which they keep retreating from the knife waving attacker, ordering her back as she continues to advance zombie fashion, until they are forced to shoot her.
Then, as the attacker, who is very much alive, continues to writhe in pain on the ground, the soldiers fail to eliminate her, exposing themselves to the real danger of being blown up by an explosive device she could be carrying, or if she got up again with her knife as the Bezeq terrorist did. There is even a point in the video where the two soldiers simultaneously look behind them, losing line of sight with the still-moving terrorist.
If ever there were proof of the damage that the IDF leadership has inflicted on the ability of the soldiers on the ground to defend themselves effectively against crazed terrorist attackers — this one should be played round-the-clock at IDF headquarters. This is a video of soldiers plagued by the fear of being prosecuted for their righteous actions and a fear of being forced to use their weapon against a dangerous terrorist who has clearly stepped beyond the rational realm.
The action begins around 0:20.