Israelis rally for soldier who killed Palestinian attacker

Thousands of Israelis rallied in central Tel Aviv today in support of a soldier charged with manslaughter for shooting a Palestinian attacker as he lay wounded on the ground last month in the West Bank.
The demonstration came just hours after a Jerusalem district court convicted the main suspect in the July 2014 murder of a Palestinian teenager an incident that ignited tensions in the lead-up to the 2014 summer war between Israel and Gaza's Islamic militant group Hamas.
It's unclear what sentence the soldier faces but the teen's killer could face life in prison.
Israeli defense officials have criticized the conduct of the soldier identified Monday as a medic named Sgt Elor Azaria while large segments of the public have rallied behind him and accused the government of abandoning him at a time of heightened conflict with the Palestinians.

In Tel Aviv, about 2,000 protesters waved flags and called for Azaria's release. The soldier was charged Monday in last month's shooting in the city of Hebron, which has been a focal point of a seven-month wave of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
At the time of the incident, the military said two Palestinians had been shot and killed while carrying out a stabbing attack that wounded an Israeli soldier.

But a video released by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem showed one of the attackers still alive after the initial shooting. The video, taken by a B'Tselem volunteer, shows Azaria calmly raising his rifle, cocking the weapon and firing at the assailant's head. An autopsy determined the shot to the head was the cause of death.

Reflecting the general mood among the public, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that "our soldiers are not murderers. They act against murderers."
"I hope that a way will be found to balance between the action and the overall context of the event," the prime minister added.
Earlier in the day, a Jerusalem district court convicted 30-year-old Yosef Haim Ben David of murder, rejecting a plea that he was not responsible for his actions in the July 2014 killing of the Palestinian teen. Ben David is to be sentenced next month and could face life in prison.
Two other Israelis have already been sentenced for their roles in the murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in revenge for the three Israeli teens abducted and killed by Palestinians earlier that summer.

The Israelis snatched Khdeir from an east Jerusalem neighborhood, drove him to a Jerusalem forest and burned him to death.
The gruesome killing caused deep outrage and wide condemnation in Israel and was part of a series of events that helped spark the Gaza war later that summer.