Soldier charged over shooting Hevron terrorist appears in court
Soldier charged over shooting Hevron terrorist appears in courtPOOL/Flash 90

The family of Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif, the terrorist who was shot by a soldier in Hevron last week after a stabbing attack against Israelis, on Monday threatened the IDF with legal procedures, the Ma’an news agency reported.

In a press conference at the Hevron governor’s office, al-Sharif’s uncle Fathi al-Sharif also urged the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, to file legal procedures against Israel at the International Criminal Court, over the incident.

He also urged the PA and human rights organizations to push for the release his nephew’s body.

On Sunday, it was reported that investigators in the case of the soldier who shot al-Sharif had concluded that the soldier did indeed fire the fatal shot, though the forensics team at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute have not yet confirmed those reports.

The incident in question took place immediately following a stabbing attack by two Arab terrorists, which left an Israeli soldier moderately wounded. Both terrorists were shot by alert forces on the scene; one was killed and the other seriously injured.

Minutes latest, in a scene filmed by an activist from the far-left B'Tselem NGO, the wounded terrorist can still be seen moving as he lay neutralized on the ground. At that point one soldier was filmed cocking his weapon and shooting the terrorist in the head. 

Sunday's ruling by two independent pathologists, one Israeli and the other from the Palestinian Authority, will bolster the prosecution's case to charge him for manslaughter, as it confirms the terrorist was not fatally wounded from the initial shooting.

The soldier claims in his defense that he only shot the terrorist because he fears he was attempting to detonate an explosive charge hidden underneath his thick coat, while prosecutors accuse him of carrying out an "execution" against military regulations.

The accused soldier is currently under arrest at his base pending a verdict in the case, after more severe charges of "murder" were ruled out.

Hevron Governor Kamil Hmeid said at Monday’s news conference that the PA would “document the crime and refer it to international courts in order to expose the crimes Israel has been committing since the beginning of the popular rising in October 2015.”