Israel may loosen rules on shooting at Palestinian stone throwers

“Since the justice system finds it difficult to deal with minors who throw rocks, changes to orders on opening fire toward stone and petrol-bomb throwers will be examined,” the prime minister's office said in a statement.

Youths who throw stones at Israeli soldiers do so to protest Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land and what Palestinians say are continued violations of their human rights.

Netanyahu was quoted as saying at the session that his government's policy was one of “zero tolerance toward stone throwing and zero tolerance toward terrorism.” Israeli authorities have long characterized Palestinian youths armed with stones as terrorists.

Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, criticized the potential new policy.

“This rightist Israeli fanatic government is pursuing its criminal policy to kill Palestinians. The new regulations would mean more escalation, killings and crimes against our people,” he told Reuters.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been frozen since 2014. While violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has not approached the levels of past Palestinian uprisings, there has been a recent surge of Palestinian stone throwing.

While tougher action against Palestinian stone throwers would likely draw international concern, Netanyahu's government and the military have been facing calls from Israeli settlement leaders in the West Bank for a security crackdown.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and other Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since the Six Day War in 1967 are illegal under international law.

In July, Israel's parliament imposed tougher penalties of up to 20 years in prison for people throwing rocks at vehicles, after a wave of Palestinian protests in occupied East Jerusalem.

But no such punishments have been reported since the new legislation was approved, and the measure does not apply to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli military law is in effect.

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem notes that current Israeli policy on the use of live ammunition was designed to curtail Palestinian casualties, but has not been effective in realizing that goal. “The main reason for this failure is the routine use of lethal fire, even in cases where neither military personnel nor civilians were in mortal danger,” reads a statement on B’Tselem’s website.

B'Tselem lists 12 Palestinian minors who were shot and killed by Israeli forces during protests and clashes in the West Bank in 2014. In at least four of those incidents, Israel said the youngsters had been throwing rocks or petrol bottles, according to B'Tselem.

Since 2011, three Israelis, including a baby and a girl, have been killed in the West Bank after rocks were thrown at vehicles they were traveling in.

Al Jazeera and Reuters