An Israeli soldier pleaded guilty on Sunday to unlawfully killing two Gazan Palestinian women while they waved a white flag, during the 2009 operation Cast Lead.

The soldier, St.-Sgt. S, who completed his army service since the event, will serve 45 days in prison according to a plea bargain deal reached with the prosecution.

"After examining all the evidence and recommendation, both sides reached a plea bargain that would see the indictment corrected to illegal use of weapons," an Israeli Defense Forces ( IDF) spokesman confirmed to Xinhua.

The IDF added that the plea was reached after an arbitration process.

According to the indictment, Ria Abu Hajaj, 64, and her daughter Majda, 37, were walking among a group of civilians waving white flags toward Israeli soldiers on Jan. 4, 2009.

IDF soldiers received an alert at the time that there may have been an armed gunman among the women, but were told not to shoot.

However, according to evidence introduced during the trial, S opened fire in contradiction to prevailing orders.

The soldier's attorneys claimed throughout the trial there was no proven connection between the shooting and the women's death, adding that the two bodies were not found.

In response to the plea deal, Israeli human rights group B' Tselem called in a statement to reopen the investigation in order to clarify the circumstances of the case.

The case was included in the 2009 Goldstone report, which accused Israeli forces of committing war crimes during the month- long foray into the coastal enclave that left more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers dead.

Israeli officials and public figures slammed the report, for what they said was a preconceived guilty verdict, and sharply biased methodology.

While the report also took Hamas and Palestinian militants to task for their responsibility in the bloodshed, critics say the report gives short shrift to their war crimes of indiscriminately firing rockets into civilian areas - Israel's declared reason for entering Gaza.

The report was compiled by a UN delegation headed by retired South African judge Richard Goldstone.