Israel's military chief of staff on Wednesday reduced the sentence of a soldier convicted of manslaughter for shooting dead a prone Palestinian assailant by four months, the army said.

The move reduced Elor Azaria's sentence from 18 months to 14 months after the soldier pleaded for leniency, military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told AFP.

Azaria was convicted in a military trial that deeply divided the country and began his sentence in August