18 months for Israeli soldier who killed Palestinian

By Kaamil Ahmed

JERUSALEM (AA) - An Israeli soldier was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a Tel Aviv military court on Tuesday for fatally shooting an already-injured Palestinian man in March of last year.

Elor Azaria, 18, was convicted of manslaughter in January after the court ruled he had "needlessly" killed Abdul-Fattah Sharif by shooting him in the head following an alleged attack in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

Following the sentencing, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the far-right Jewish Home party and who had opposed the trial altogether, immediately tweeted that Azaria should be pardoned.

Last year’s shooting was caught on camera by a Palestinian activist, leading to a split within the Israeli government when the military moved to prosecute Azaria despite vocal opposition from Israel’s far right -- including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While the court rejected Azaria's argument that he had feared Sharif was armed when he shot him, Judge Maya Heller said the sentencing took into account the "hostile territory" on which the incident took place and the effect of the highly-politicized trial on Azaria's family.

Military prosecutors had demanded a sentence of three to five years in prison for Azaria, who has remained in open detention on an army base since the shooting.