Thousands rally for Israeli soldier who 'executed' wounded Palestinian

Thousands of Israelis held a rally Tuesday in support of Elor Azria, a soldier recently charged with manslaughter after shooting a wounded Palestinian in the head in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

The rally held at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square attracted an estimated 5,000 people, who waved Israeli flags and chanted for the soldier's release.

Eyewitnesses reported that some demonstrators chanted "death to Arabs" and "release the kid or we'll turn the country over."

Nava Boker, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party who attended the rally, said that Azria "has turned into a scapegoat".

"At the end of the day, the message to soldiers should be clear - a soldier who neutralises a terrorist, even if he was mistaken, shouldn't be imprisoned," she said in a statement.

Azria, who also holds French citizenship, was charged Monday with manslaughter and unbecoming conduct over the 24 March killing that took place in the southern West Bank city Hebron.

A widely circulated video showed Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another man after stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier minutes earlier, according to the army.

Azria, who was not at the scene during Sharif's attack, then shoots him in the head without any apparent provocation.

Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that he was "convinced that the court will consider all circumstances regarding the incident".

"Our soldiers are not murderers. They act against murderers and I hope that a way will be found to balance between the action and the overall context of the event," he said.