 He also criticised the top three commanders who testified against Azaria as treating him too harshly for making a mistake in what he described as a "chaotic terror scene" where people felt their lives were in danger.He also agreed with the defense's argument that the other soldiers felt influenced to testify against Azaria because of the actions of their commanders.On 14 September, Ronen Bashari, the deputy director of MDA testified that the area where the incident occurred was extremely dangerous.