Israeli soldier convicted in killing of Palestinian

An Israeli military court on Monday convicted a soldier of negligent homicide in the January shooting dead of a young Palestinian trying to sneak from the occupied West Bank into the Jewish State, local media reported. Israeli daily Haaretz said that the soldier, a staff sergeant accused of manslaughter, pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to the lesser charge of negligent homicide. No date for sentencing was given. The army could not immediately confirm or deny the report, which was also carried by news website Ynet. Odai Darwish, 21, from the village of Dura near Hebron, was shot dead crossing Israel's West Bank security barrier south of Hebron, as he tried to reach his workplace in Israel, a Palestinian official said at the time. Haaretz said that he was employed without the permits required to enter the Jewish state legally. "A Palestinian attempted to infiltrate Israel through the security fence," an army spokesman told AFP immediately after the shooting. "Soldiers at the scene fired toward his legs. The incident is under investigation."