The family of a Palestinian attacker killed by an Israeli soldier reacted angrily to his sentencing to 18 months on Tuesday, labeling the trial a "farce."

 

Amnesty International said the sentence given to Elor Azaria, 21, for shooting dead Abdul Fatah al-Sharif in the southern West Bank was too light, while Human Rights Watch warned against proposals to pardon him.

 

Sharif was shot dead in March 2016 while lying on the ground, several minutes after he and another Palestinian had allegedly stabbed a soldier in the city of Hebron.

 

An Israeli military court found Azaria guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him on Tuesday.

 

"A year and a half is a farce," Sharif's father Yusri said. "It is only a mock trial to silence people and the families."

 

"If one of us (a Palestinian) killed an animal they would have sentenced him for only God knows how long."

 

Magdalena Mughrabi from Amnesty International said in a statement that Azaria's conviction a month ago had "offered a glimmer of hope for accountability for unlawful killings by Israeli forces."

 

"(But) the 18-month sentence for Elor Azaria does not reflect the gravity of the offense."

 

Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, called the conviction an "important message about reining in excessive use of force."

 

She warned, however, that pardoning him, as many ministers in Israel's right-wing government have proposed, would "encourage impunity."