JERUSALEM, July 20 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli soldier with 18-month sentence in prison for killing a wounded, incapacitated Palestinian assailant has been placed under house arrest on Thursday.
A military court in Tel Aviv convicted Elor Azaria of manslaughter in January, as he shot Abdel Fattah al-Sharif when he was injured and immobilized on the ground in March.
The incident took place in the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida in the West Bank city of Hebron, where a few hundreds of settlers live in a heavily guarded enclave between some 200,000 Palestinians.
Azaria has appealed the court to reconsider his sentence. Since his military service ends on July 20, he was allowed to travel to his parents' home in Ramla, west of Tel Aviv, and stay there under house arrest until his appeal on July 30.
Since the incident, Azaria has been under "open arrest," meaning he was confined to a military base but was allowed to move there freely.
The rare conviction against Azaria, a military medic, marked the first time in 12 years that an Israeli court convicted a soldier of this charge.
The case stirred a polarized public debate in Israel, with many political leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling that Azaria should be pardoned.
