An Israeli soldier filmed shooting dead a wounded Palestinian protester after he had been disarmed of a knife has been convicted of manslaughter.
Elor Azaria 20 fatally shot Abdul Fatah al-Sharif 21 in the head while he was lying immobile on a road.
In their indictment prosecutors said Azaria “violated the rules of engagement without operational justification as the youth was lying on the ground wounded and represented no immediate threat for the accused or others who were present”.
Delivering the verdict on Wednesday the panel of three military judges rejected Azaria’s defense that he shot Sharif because he continued to pose a threat.
The judges also said there was no dispute regarding the veracity of the statements made by another soldier who testified to military investigators that Azaria had told him during the incident: “They stabbed my friend and tried to kill him – he deserves to die.”
Azaria told the court that he did not recall having any such conversation.
The judges also accepted the findings of a post-mortem examination which concluded that it was the single bullet to the head that killed Sharif.
The March 24 shooting of Fatah al-Sharif 21 as he lay overpowered on the ground was filmed by activists from the Israeli B’Tselem human rights group.
Al-Sharif and another Palestinian his age were shot as they allegedly lunged at an Israeli soldier in the southern occupied West Bank province of al-Khalil.
Footage of the scene several minutes later released by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem shows Sharif alive.
In the video a combat medic later identified as Azaria raises and aims his rifle then a shot is heard. The Palestinian’s head jolts and he suddenly has a serious head wound.
Human Rights Watch said on Monday that there had been more than 150 instances since October 2015 in which Israeli occupation forces fatally shot Palestinian adults and children while they posed no threat to the occupation officers.
