Elor Azaria: Israeli soldier convicted over Hebron shooting

An Israeli soldier who killed a wounded Palestinian has been convicted of manslaughter at a military court in Tel Aviv.

Sergeant Elor Azaria was filmed in March 2016 shooting Abdul Fattah al-Sharif, 21, in the head as he lay on the ground in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, after being shot forallegedly stabbing a checkpoint soldier.

Giving her two-and-a-half-hour verdict, chief judge Colonel Maya Heller "rejected the defence's two central claims that the Palestinian assailant was already dead and that Azaria felt threatened at the time of the shooting," Israel's Haaretz reports.

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"You can't have it both ways," Heller added.

Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups said the case "showed excessive force had been used to stop attacks, and accused Sgt Azaria of carrying out an extra-judicial killing", the BBC reports.

However, Azaria, who was 19 at the time, has received overwhelming support from right-wing politicians and thousands of Israelis have attended rallies calling for his acquittal.

For a member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to face such a high level of public scrutiny over the death of a Palestinian terrorist is unprecedented and the seven-month trial has split Israel almost down the middle.

A poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University last month found 47 per cent of the country supported killing a violent terrorist on the spot, while 45 per cent said a captured attacker should be handed over to the authorities.

The trial is particularly emotive due to Israel's policy of mandatory military service for 18-year-olds, giving rise to a "public compact" which "requires the society to support its young troops almost without question", says the Washington Post.

However, while the Post calls the case "every Israeli parent's nightmare", IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot appeared to reject the idea Azaria was entitled to the nation's protection, The Times of Israel reports.

Without explicitly mentioning the soldier, Eisenkot said: "An 18-year-old man serving in the army is not 'everyone's child'.

"He is a fighter, a soldier, who must dedicate his life to carry out the tasks we give him. We cannot be confused about this."