TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday in the deadly shooting of an incapacitated Palestinian attacker, capping a nine-month saga that has deeply divided the country.

The verdict, which marks an extremely rare instance of an Israeli military court siding against a soldier over lethal action taken in the field, threatened to deepen the rift. Military commanders have condemned the soldier’s conduct, while much of the public, along with leading members of the nationalist ruling coalition, have rallied behind him.

Sgt. Elor Azaria, an army medic, was caught on a cellphone video fatally shooting a wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron in March. The Palestinian was lying motionless on the ground when Azaria shot him in the head. In a verdict that stretched nearly three hours, Col. Maya Heller, head of the three-judge panel, painstakingly rejected all of Azaria’s defense arguments. She said there was no evidence to support his claim that the attacker was already dead or that the man posed any threat at the time.(nydailynews)…[+]