IDF indicts Aviad Frija over killing of Yuval Castleman after Jerusalem attack

*Event date: 2024-11-27*

The IDF prosecution has indicted Sgt. (res.) Aviad Frija over the killing of Israeli civilian Yuval Doron Kestleman, also identified as Yuval Castleman, after the November 2023 attack at the entrance to Jerusalem, according to The Jerusalem Post. The report says the charge is reduced manslaughter.

The case is grave because the man who was shot had already helped stop the original attack. The Jerusalem Post said Castleman responded to the assault, along with security forces on the scene, and shot two Hamas terrorists. It also said that video from the scene shows him kneeling, raising his hands and opening his shirt before Frija fired at him.

The indictment reportedly says another soldier warned Frija not to fire and that Castleman had taken objective measures to show he was surrendering, unarmed and posing no imminent threat. That is the core of the prosecution's case as presented in the supplied evidence.

Frija's defence, as described by the newspaper, argues that the footage circulating online does not capture the whole situation and that he believed Castleman still posed a danger. His lawyers said the soldier acted under extreme circumstances and had no intention of carrying out an unlawful killing. The report notes that Frija consented to a polygraph test and that investigators found gaps between his testimony and the evidence at the scene.

The indictment also matters because it follows a contested period in which Frija was reportedly arrested, then placed under house arrest, and at one point allowed to remain free for several days. The Jerusalem Post said the legal process had been unclear for some time, with questions over whether and how the soldier would be prosecuted.

In the broader Israeli legal and military context, the charge is likely to be watched closely because the case has already become a symbolic one: a civilian killed after helping repel an attack, and a soldier now facing military prosecution for the shooting. The report draws a comparison with past high-profile cases involving IDF soldiers, though those sentencing patterns are background rather than a claim about this case.

What is verifiable here is straightforward: the indictment was filed, the charge is reduced manslaughter, the victim was a civilian who had confronted terrorists, and the scene video appears central to the prosecution's view. The rest will be decided in court.

The event date's indictment closes one procedural chapter but opens another. The court will now have to test the competing claims: whether Frija believed he was confronting a continuing threat, or whether he shot a man who had plainly surrendered.