Israeli soldier Elor Azaria who was indicted of shooting a Palestinian man is seen in his home town of Ramla, Israel, after his release from prison on May 8, 2018. The Palestinian government slammed Tuesday an early release of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria who was indicted of shooting a Palestinian man from close range in Hebron in 2016 an encourage of killing more Palestinians with cold blood. (Xinhua/JINI)
RAMALLAH, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian government slammed Tuesday an early release of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria who was indicted of shooting a Palestinian man from close range in Hebron in 2016 an encourage of killing more Palestinians with cold blood.
The government said in a statement following its weekly cabinet meeting that the early release of Azaria after serving only nine months of his sentence that Israel "concealed most of its crimes and field execution by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians, including women and children, without putting them to justice."
"The early release of aforementioned Israeli soldier gives the green light to occupation soldiers to continue to carry out their crimes against the unarmed Palestinian people," said the statement.
Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Detainees Affairs Commission Eassa Qaraqe' told Xinhua that Azaria's release "is systematic encouragement of the extrajudicial arbitrary field execution policy against Palestinians."
Qaraqe' accused Israel of "deliberately undermining the lives of Palestinians and the rights of the Palestinian people and publicly covering for the criminals in its forces who are accused of war crimes."
Back then, a video went viral on social media websites showing Azaria had fatally shot a Palestinian named Al-Sharif at a close range in Hebron in March 2016.
