Israeli officer sentenced to 9 months in prison over killing Palestinian teen

JERUSALEM - An Israeli border police officer was sentenced to nine-month imprisonment on Wednesday over charge of shooting dead a Palestinian teenager in a protest in the West Bank in 2014.

The officer, named Ben Deri, was found guilty of causing death because of negligence for using live ammunition, instead of rubber bullets, when he was ordered to disperse a crowd of protesters during Nakba Day demonstrations in the West Bank village of Beitunia on May 15, 2014, said a Jerusalem court.

In addition to the imprisonment sentence, Deri will also pay a fine of NIS 50,000 (about $14,000) to the family of the deceased Palestinian.

The court noted that the victim, 17-year-old Nadeem Siam Nawara, had previously thrown rocks during a protest, but he was at a considerable distance from the demonstration and posed no threat to Deri's Border Police unit at the time of the shooting.

"Nakba Day," also translated as "the catastrophe," is marked every year on May 15. This year, May 15 will coincide with the inauguration of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem as US President Donald Trump had made the controversial announcement to relocate it from Tel Aviv on Dec 6, 2017.

Israel seized the Gaza Strip, along with the West Bank, in the 1967 Middle East war. It withdrew its forces from the enclave in 2005 but kept much of its control over the territory.