Israel approves harsh new measures against stone throwers

Israel has approved harsher measures to combat the practice of stone throwing amid a recent surge in Palestinian violence, widening the rules of engagement for police and raising minimum penalties for offenders to four years in prison.

The measures, approved by the Security Cabinet on Thursday, allow police officers to fire live ammunition when there is an "immediate and concrete danger to police or civilians," according to a government statement.

The development came as a Palestinian man died on Thursday from his wounds after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank last week.

Officers will be permitted to fire from .22 caliber Ruger rifles, an American-made firearm that uses a smaller bullet and, police said, would offer a quicker response against those throwing stones or firebombs or lighting fireworks. The rifle was not allowed previously, the police said.

"We intend to change the norm that has become established here, that the state of Israel allows these deadly and murderous objects to be thrown without response and without being thwarted," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement from his office.

New York–based rights group Human Rights Watch said the new rules might worsen the situation. "Time and again, we have documented that Israeli forces in the West Bank unlawfully killed Palestinians who posed no threat to life, including children, and yet no one was held accountable," Sarah Leah Whitson, the group's Middle East director, told Al Jazeera America.

"Loosening the open-fire policies of Israeli police, along with moves to increase jail sentences and imprison children, risk deepening the injustice and adding to the death toll," she said.

In recent months, stone throwing has become a near daily occurrence in some neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, the section of the city captured by Israel in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. But after an Israeli motorist was killed last week when his car crashed after being pelted with stones on the eve of the Jewish New Year, the Israeli government pledged to crack down on the practice.

According to the statement, children ages 14 to 18 could face imprisonment, and their parents could be denied government stipends.

Netanyahu's government has been pushing for tougher rules of engagement for police and tougher minimum sentences for offenders, though Israel's attorney general said this week he opposed such changes and insisted the existing regulations were sufficient.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the newly approved regulations mean that "police officers have further tools that can be used in life-threatening situations only."

Tensions have been rising in Jerusalem after last week's deadly rock-throwing incident and days of clashes at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, sacred to both Jews and Muslims, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, which is also home to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Since the beginning of last week, Israeli police said, 137 suspects have been arrested for public disturbances, including 61 minors.

Calls by a group of religious Jews to visit the site on the eve of the Jewish New Year sparked rumors among Palestinians that Israel was planning to disrupt the delicate status quo governing the site and take it over.

Muslim demonstrators armed with rocks and firecrackers holed themselves up in Al-Aqsa Mosque and clashed with police for three days.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Israel for the clashes in particularly harsh language and insisted that none of Jerusalem's holy sites belonged to Israel. "They are all ours, and we will not let them desecrate it with their filthy feet," he said.

Netanyahu has repeated his insistence that Israel would uphold the status quo and called on the Palestinian Authority to "stop the wild incitement."

"All remarks regarding the intention to harm the Islamic holy places are utter nonsense. It is not we who are changing the status quo," Netanyahu said. "It is those who bring firebombs and explosives into the mosques who are changing the status quo."

Israeli police barred all non-Muslims from entering the holy site Thursday during a major Muslim holiday.

On Thursday a Palestinian man, Ahmad Khatatbeh, died from his wounds after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank last week, his brother Issa Khatatbeh said. The Israeli army said it shot at a group of Palestinians hurling a firebomb at a passing car on a road between illegal Jewish settlements, hitting one.

Issa Khatatbeh said his family did not know the circumstances surrounding Ahmad Khatatbeh's death. He said his brother was deaf and unable to speak.

Al Jazeera and wire services