The IDF has reduced the prison sentence of a soldier convicted of manslaughter for shooting dead an incapacitated Palestinian assailant.

Gadi Eizenkot, the IDF chief of staff, announced on Wednesday that the 18 month prison sentence of former IDF sergeant Elor Azaria would be reduced by four months, having previously refused a request to pardon him altogether.

In March 2016, Azaria was videoed shooting dead a wounded Palestinian man who had stabbed three other Israeli soldiers. Azaria was subsequently arrested by the Israeli Military Police and put on trial.

After an eight month trial which divided Israeli society, Azaria was found guilty in January, with prominent politicians, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then calling for him to be pardoned.

In a letter released yesterday, the IDF criticised the former soldier over “grave actions for which you did not take responsibility and for which you did not express regret”.

However, it also announced that Lieutenant general Eizenkot had decided to shorten Azaria’s sentence “on grounds of compassion and mercy ... taking into account your past as a combat soldier in an operational theater”.