1st LD: Israeli soldier gets 18 months in jail for killing Palestinian

An Israeli military court sentenced on Tuesday Sgt. Elor Azaria to 18 months in prison after he was convicted of manslaughter for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian assailant last March.

A three-judge panel said the incident was "a one-time failure" for Azaria and therefore he deserves a relatively light punishment.

During the hearing, the military prosecution asked for an "appropriate sentence" of 3-5 years in jail. The maximum punishment for manslaughter is 20 years.

Azaria was also given 12 months' probation, and his military rank will be demoted from sergeant to private.

Azaria's legal team did not immediately say if they will appeal against the sentence although the lawyers said earlier that they would struggle against any prison sentence.

On Jan. 4, the court convicted Azaria of shooting and unlawful killing of Palestinian Abdel al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif, 21, in the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida in the West Bank city of Hebron on March 24, 2016.

"There was no reason for shooting the terrorist, certainly not at his head," the judges said.

Azaria was a 19-year-old army medic at the time of the shooting.

According to the verdict, the incident took place after al-Sharif and another Palestinian, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasarwi, stabbed a soldier, wounding him lightly.

Troops opened fire at them, killing al-Qasarwi and seriously injuring Al-Sharif. Al-Sharif was lying on the ground, immobilized, for about 30 minutes, before Azaria approached him and shot to his head.

After the shooting, a video footage of the incident surfaced on the internet and went viral, prompting a military police investigation into the case.

At the courtroom in Hakirya military base in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Azaria was greeted with applause by his family and supporters, while hundreds of other supporters rallied outside the court, waving flags of Israel.

"We will wreak havoc throughout the country if Elor is sent to jail," they chanted.

Following the announcement of the sentence, Naftali Bennet, education minister and leader of the ultra-nationalist faction of the Jewish Home, called for Azaria's release.

"The security of the citizens of Israel requires an immediate clemency to Azaria," he said in a statement.

The trial, which began in last May, has deeply divided the Israeli society, with many Israelis hailing Azaria as a "hero." Lawmakers and ministers came to his defense, saying the army should stand by its soldiers even if they were wrong.

The case also divided the country's leadership, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and right-wing ministers call for pardoning the soldier, and the army's commanders stress the importance of punishment to keep the military's "code of ethics."

The incident occurred at a tense time between Israelis and Palestinians, amid a spate of violence in the West Bank and Israel, which has claimed the lives of at least 240 Palestinians and 34 Israelis since Sept. 2015.

The court's ruling was a rare case of convicting a soldier for killing a Palestinian.

According to figures released by Human Rights Watch on Wednesday, since Oct. 2015, there have been at least 150 clashes in which Israeli security forces shot Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks. Endit