Palestinian medical centers and individual physicians like Dr. Jumah Odeh of the Palestinian Happy Child Center have been following the cases of children shot by Israeli forces. By the Israeli Forces International standards for law enforcement officials state that the role of law enforcement officers, including the armed services when they take on law enforcement duties, is to protect and respect the human rights of all people and protect and preserve life. The official guidelines for opening fire in the occupied territories issued to the Israeli troops state, at points of conflict and disturbances, when there is a life-threatening situation, materials for dispersing demonstrations should be used, then shooting in the air, and only if these means do not bring results can troops fire live ammunition at the legs, according to the instructions of the local commander. At the beginning of October 2000, Israeli military officials authorized local force commanders operating in the West Bank and Gaza to apply more relaxed live fire orders in response to Palestinian stone throwers. This implies that a stone can be life threatening and warrants a lethal response.
Serious casualties are inevitable.
Stone throwing teenagers do not constitute a life-threatening situation that would justify shooting them in the upper body. The current situation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has had an enormous and negative impact on the Palestinian education system. Six schools have had to move teachers to open schools and now run these schools in two shifts. The Israeli military has taken over 4 schools in Hebron to use them as military posts. At least 15 schools throughout the West Bank and Gaza strip have been hit by Israeli fire and shelling.