Occupied Jerusalem: A video emerged on Wednesday that appears to show a knife being kicked toward the body of an alleged Palestinian attacker who was shot dead by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank, raising the possibility of evidence tampering.

The soldier, who faces charges of manslaughter, has said he felt the Palestinian, Abdul Fattah Al Sharif, posed a risk even though he was already lying on the ground wounded. He has reportedly claimed in his defence that the knife was in the Palestinian’s reach and that he also feared the Palestinian had a bomb because he was wearing a jacket on a hot day.

The video, which Israeli media aired Wednesday and said was presented by the prosecution, shows an ambulance driving over a knife on the ground a few metres away from the body and then coming to a halt. The knife then skitters across the ground toward the dead Palestinian, indicating someone kicked it.

Ilan Katz, the soldier’s lawyer, told Channel 2 TV that the video doesn’t tell the whole story and that among other evidence there is a witness who saw a knife just inches away from the attacker. He said his client “saw in real time the terrorist move and feared for the lives of the forces.”

An activist said the killing in Hebron shows undeniable coordination between the occupation forces and the medics in “extrajudicial executions against the Palestinians”.

“Instead of rescuing the lives of the neutralised and bleeding Palestinian, the colonist medic appears to be delaying the arrival of the ambulances to the scene where Palestinians bleed to death,” said Eisa Amr, who heads the Hebron Youth Against Settlements [colonies]. “The coordination between medics and occupation forces explains not only the death of Al Sharif, but also the deaths of other Palestinian martyrs who were moved from scenes in stable conditions but later suddenly died.”

Amr said the Israeli occupation forces had never conducted fair, accurate and transparent investigations. “An army can not and should not investigate itself. We do not trust their investigations at all. Soldiers would surely defend their colleagues and never give the Palestinian victims the chance to indict any of them.”

Amr urged the international community to question Israel for the extrajudicial killings the occupation forces committed against the Palestinian civilians.

The case has left Israel, where military service is mandatory, deeply polarised, with some demanding the soldier face justice and others accusing the military of second-guessing a decision made in the field.

— with inputs from AP