Autopsy finds Palestinian man died from headshot: Report

CORRECTION: The soldier who fired the fatal shot was earlier misidentified in the sixth paragraph. His name hasn't been officially released.

An autopsy has revealed that Abed Fattah al-Sharif, the Palestinian shot dead in Hebron last week, died as the result of a head shot, according to a Palestinian pathologist.

Doctor Ryan Alali, director of pathology at the forensic institute at An Najah University in Nablus, told the Al Quds newspaper in Jeruslaem that he agreed with the Israeli team that it was a bullet shot in Sharif's head that killed him, Haaretz reported.

Sharif, 21, was wounded by several bullets in his arm, shoulder and lower body after he attacked an Israeli soldier with a knife. He would have been incapacitated before the fatal shot.

He also sustained a bullet wound to the chest, but none of those wounds were lethal.

According to the doctor, the bullet that struck him in the head smashed his skull and created a huge hole, which reinforces his view that Sharif was killed as a result of this blow.

The soldier who fired the killshot may be charged with manslaughter rather than murder, it was announced on Thursday.

A video released hours after the incident by Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem showed al-Sharif lying on the ground for nearly two minutes as medics attended to the soldier that he and a second person injured.

Then, an Israeli soldier, surrounded by dozens of others, lifts his gun and shoots Sharif in the head.

The soldier can clearly be heard cocking his weapon before the shot is heard off camera.

Dozens of other Israeli soldiers, medics and settlers do not seem to respond to the execution.

WARNING: Video contains graphic footage.