JERUSALEM (AP) – An Israeli military court charged a soldier on Monday with manslaughter for last month’s fatal shooting of wounded Palestinian attacker in the West Bank, an incident caught on tape that has deeply divided the nation.
The soldier, a medic whose name was not released under a gag order, has also been charged with inappropriate military conduct. The shooting took place last month in Hebron, a West Bank city that has been a focal point of a seven-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Initially, the military had said two Palestinians stabbed and wounded a soldier before troops killed the pair.
A video released later by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem showed one of the attackers, still alive and lying on the ground, before a soldier calmly raised his rifle, cocked his weapon and fired at the assailant’s head.
An autopsy later determined the bullet to the head was the cause of death.