Elor Azaria, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) medic who shot a Palestinian assailant in the head when he was immobilised on the ground last year, has had his 18 month manslaughter sentence reduced to 14 months following a decision by the Israeli military’s chief of staff.

In March 2016, Azaria shot 21-year-old Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the head when he lay wounded on the ground in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron after he and an accomplice attacked two soldiers.

The now 20-year-old was handed down the sentence by a Tel Aviv military court in January in a ruling which marked the first time a member of the IDF had been convicted of the charge in 12 years.

Israeli checkpoints impede daily life in Hebron

The prosecution had sought a sentence of between three and five years, although manslaughter can carry a sentence of up to 20 years under Israeli law.

“If [a Palestinian] kills an animal ... he would have gotten more time,” Sharif's father Yusri told reporters from the West Bank at the time.

The IDF’s decision on Wednesday to shave four months off Azaria’s sentence was met with anger by many prominent Palestinians and rights activists.

Israel: From independence to intifada Show all 7 1 /7 Israel: From independence to intifada Israel: From independence to intifada The proclamation of the state of Israel is read by David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948 © EPA Israel: From independence to intifada Sixty years on, an illuminated flag is shown in Tel Aviv this week © PA Israel: From independence to intifada Young Jews celebrate the proclamation of the state of Israel in 1948 © AFP/Getty Images Israel: From independence to intifada Palestinian children throw stones at a retreating Israeli tank during an incursion into the West Bank city of Jenin in August 2003 following a suicide bombing in Jerusalem © AP Israel: From independence to intifada How Israel's borders have changed - click image to enlarge © Independent Graphics Israel: From independence to intifada From 1948-50, the world's mostcelebrated war photographer Robert Capa captured extraordinary imagesof Israel's pioneering settlers. Here, Turkish immigrants arrive in Haifa © Robert Capa/Getty Images Robert Capa/Magnum Israel: From independence to intifada The Negba kibbutz, where the walls have been damaged by shells fired during the Israeli-Arab war © Robert Capa/Getty Images Robert Capa/Magnum

“The reduction of the sentence is an encouragement for Israeli soldiers to commit violations [against Palestinians],” Mustafa Barghouti, senior member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) central council, said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

“It's a green light, a licence to kill for Israeli soldiers without any accountability,” he said.

A statement from IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot’s office said that Azaria’s actions had been “contrary to the code of conduct and to the values of the IDF” but the decision was made to shorten his sentence because Azaria is a “a combat soldier and a warrior“ who had ”endured a lot“, military spokesperson Jonathan Conricus added.

The case – and the military court's verdict – has split Israeli society, where there is widespread sympathy for the IDF, since military service is compulsory.

A 2016 survey by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 65 per cent of the Jewish Israeli public supported Azaria's claim of self-defence.

There have been several fundraisers and protests in support of the soldier, as well as high profile calls for the young recruit to be given a pardon by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Palestinians and rights activists, however, have widely criticised Azaria’s punishment as not harsh enough for the severity of his crime.

“Senior Israeli officials should repudiate the shoot-to-kill rhetoric that too many of them have promoted, even when there is no imminent threat of death," Sari Bashi, Human Rights Watch's Israeli and Palestinian advocacy director, said earlier this year.