Video suggests knife near Hebron assailant killed by IDF soldier was ‘planted’

Video has emerged showing a knife getting kicked closer to the suspected assailant in Hebron killed in the infamous March incident. The footage was shown at a court looking into whether an IDF soldier committed manslaughter by killing the wounded attacker.

The video exposing tampering with evidence at the scene of Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif’s killing was made public by Channel 2, as prosecutors were making their statement at the Jaffa Military Court.

The court is hearing the case of IDF Sergeant Elor Azaria, who shot Sharif in the head as the latter lay wounded on the ground after an alleged stabbing attack.

The man who kicked the knife was named as ambulance driver Ofer Ohana, according to the Jerusalem Post. Ohana also shot other footages at the scene. The military police investigator pointed out at one of such videos, how it stopped at one point, the knife was moved and the video resumed.

“You don’t need to be an expert to see that the knife was far away, and also notice that the terrorist’s shirt is half open — this is 30 seconds before he’s shot,” the Times of Israel quotes a prosecutor as saying.

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Sharif was one of two Palestinians that allegedly knifed an IDF soldier in the West Bank’s Hebron on March 24, moderately injuring him. Sharif was killed by Azaria seconds after the ambulance with a wounded Israeli soldier left the scene. The other suspected attacker had been shot dead on the spot.

Following the incident, Azaria was charged with manslaughter and is now facing up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

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His case has polarized Israeli society, with 57 percent of Israelis opposing his arrest and only 5 percent describing his actions as murder, according to a March poll for Channel 2 .

On April 19, some 2,000 Israelis also flocked to Tel Aviv’s central Rabin Square to support Azaria. The crowd yelled nationalist slogans, waved Israeli flags, and held banners reading “Free Elor” and hailing the killer as a “hero.”