An Israeli soldier who killed a
wounded Palestinian attacker in a high-profile case that split opinion
across the country has been jailed for 18 months.
Sgt Elor Azaria
was found guilty of manslaughter for shooting dead 21-year-old Abdul
Fatah al-Sharif in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, last March.
Azaria had told a colleague that Sharif, who had stabbed another soldier, "deserved to die".
Military chiefs condemned his actions, but others praised them.
The case fuelled debate in Israel over when and how soldiers are entitled to use lethal force against attackers.
The shooting occurred amid a wave of attacks by Palestinians that had killed 29 Israelis over the preceding five months.
Dozens of supporters of Azaria gathered outside the court
The offence carries a sentence of up to 20 years, though prosecutors
had called for Azaria to be jailed for between three and five years.
Jail term anger - by the BBC's Jonny Dymond at the court
Outside
the court, chanting and singing from protesters didn't falter as the
verdict was read out.
The small but noisy crowd had come to demand Elor
Azaria's immediate release and condemn his trial, not to argue over the
length of his sentence.
Nationalist politicians criticised the
sentence. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home
party in the governing coalition, called for an immediate pardon. "Elor
must not go to jail," he said, "or we will all pay the price."
Yusri
al-Sharif, the father of the attacker killed by Azaria, said the
sentence was a "joke" and the Israeli authorities were "laughing in our
face". He had called for a life sentence.
This is not the end of
the case.
Azaria's defence team have said they will appeal against the
verdict of manslaughter and there is the possibility of getting the
sentence reduced.
Azaria, who was
also ordered demoted, sat smiling broadly, embraced by his mother, as
the judgment was read out, says our correspondent.
The judge, Maya
Heller, said his crime was mitigated by the fact that it was his first
conviction, that it had occurred in an active military scene and that
there had been no clear orders as to how he was supposed to act.
Judge Heller noted that Azaria had not displayed any remorse for what he had done.
A
spokesman for the Palestinian Authority criticised the sentence as
lenient, calling it a "green light to the occupation army to continue
its crimes", AFP news agency reported.
A scene from the video showing Sgt Azaria raising his rifle at the wounded Abdul Fatah al-Sharif
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said he would support any decision to pardon the soldier.
The
killing received widespread coverage after footage of the incident,
filmed on a mobile phone, was shown on Israeli news programmes.
It
showed Azaria cocking his gun and firing at the head of Sharif, who was
lying apparently incapacitated on the ground after being shot and
wounded following the stabbing attack.
The court which convicted
Azaria dismissed his claim that he had acted out of fear that Sharif
might have been wearing an explosive vest.
Following the incident
military chiefs and the prime minister came under fire from right-wing
sections of society - including members of Mr Netanyahu's cabinet - for
criticising Azaria's actions.
Mr Netanyahu later telephoned Azaria's father to offer reassurance.
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