IDF probes colonel over killing

However, CCTV footage emerged on Sunday indicating that the shooting may have taken place after the stone had been thrown and while Mr al-Kasbeh was running away.

The footage, published by Israeli human-rights organisation B'Tselem, shows soldiers leaving a jeep with a smashed windshield, the stone throwers running away, and the soldiers returning to the jeep. The shooting itself is not visible.

This week it emerged that at least four battalion commanders and one brigade commander are also under investigation for allegedly breaching Israeli and international law during the war in Gaza last summer. The only officer who has so far been identified is armoured battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Nerya Yeshurun, who is accused of ordering his men to carry out an "honour volley" towards a Palestinian clinic in memory of one of the battalion's officers who had been killed by snipers.

Lt-Col Yeshurun's lawyer has said that the attack on the clinic had been ordered "for operational reasons" as it was suspected of being a Hamas firing position, and that no casualties resulted from the action.