Israel’s military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot has reduced the prison sentence of soldier Elor Azaria convicted of cold-bloodedly shooting an incapacitated Palestinian attacker last year and killing him.
Azaria started an 18-month prison term in August after he was found guilty of manslaughter.
Eisenkot said in a letter published Wednesday that he was reducing Azaria’s sentence by four months citing “mercy considerations.”
The March 2016 shooting in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil was caught on video by a human rights group and spread widely online.
It showed a Palestinian young man called Abdel al-Fattah al-Sharif lying wounded on the ground shot along with another Palestinian Aziz al-Qasrawi after stabbing and wounding a soldier according to the army.
Some 11 minutes after the initial shooting Azaria a military medic at the time of the incident shot him in the head without any apparent provocation.
