The Times of Israel reports: The soldier who was arrested Thursday after he was filmed shooting a disarmed Palestinian assailant in the head in the West Bank city of Hebron said he shot the man as he believed him to be wearing a suicide-bomber vest.
The soldier, who was arrested and questioned for several hours following the incident, told military investigators he believes he acted properly in shooting the attacker as he lay wounded and weaponless on the ground, Channel 10 news reported.
The soldier’s lawyer Benjamin Malka explained that the assailant, who had just stabbed another Israeli soldier, was still “moving underneath his jacket, where he could have been hiding explosives or weapons.”
The graphic video of the Thursday morning incident went viral and sparked widespread criticism of the unnamed soldier’s actions, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who both said that the actions went against the “values” of Israel and its military.
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