Read on for article

President Isaac Herzog has paid a condolence call to the family of the late Border Police officer Staff Sgt. Barel Hadaria Shmueli in Be’er Yaakov.

The President and his staff sat with members of the Shmueli family and Border Police commanders from the late Staff Sgt. Shmueli’s zone.

21-yr-old Barel died at Soroka Hospital on Monday after being fatally injured when a Palestinian terrorist who had approached the Gaza Strip border fence shot him in the head at close range.

President Herzog listened to the Shmueli family describing Barel’s unique and optimistic character, and their own pain and sorrow, and he said: “Barel, who paid with his life to serve the homeland, was a hero. He was a daring soldier, an exemplar of the fighting spirit and sacrifice.”

President Herzog further addressed the fact that Barel was killed in the battlefield, in the fog of combat, and said: “We are all attentive to criticism, certainly to the criticism of parents and families, and it is important to investigate every incident, but it is also important to understand that the battlefield will never be a sterile zone.”

President Herzog expressed his complete confidence in the IDF to thoroughly investigate this incident stressing: “The IDF’s commanders will continue to lead its soldiers in the future, as has always been done, in a professional, ethical, and most responsible manner. Without them, there would be nothing to defend our children, us, and our beloved and embattled land. Barel fell as a hero, and arguments like the one that has evolved over the past week around his death must not be allowed to give succour to our enemies.”