Even so, how can they deny the fact that two Palestinian children were killed in this weekend because those imaginary rubber bullets were launched into one childs head and the other childs chest before exiting through his back? Rubber bullets are intended to be shot at the legs with the intent to disable without mortally wounding-during riot control. Head and chest shots are not the legs. Further, head shots with rubber bullets have been lethal in the past but that is not the case with the two murders in question. Evidence points to live ammo.
In response to the Palestinian uprising that started in the late 1980s, the Israeli military developed its own rubber bullets designed to disperse crowds, to injure but not kill. These small rubber-coated metal pellets are supposed to be shot from a distance of about 130 feet and aimed at people's legs. But they can be lethal if shot at the head at closer range, and dozens of Palestinians have died from such injuries. Source
IDF is denying that they used live ammo despite evidence to the contrary. Lets suppose that they are not lying through their crooked teeth this time (though they are). Why then would their well trained soldiers miss their mark unless the intent was to shoot to kill in the first place? The answer is that they wouldn't and this is a null point, because the evidence is lodged in one childs head and has torn apart another childs torso.
Here is the story:
Bethlehem - Ma'an - Live ammunition killed two 16-year-old Palestinian boys in the northern West Bank over the weekend, despite the Israeli military's denials, medical officials and human rights advocates said Sunday.
Useid Qadus died of a gunshot wound to the head, medics at Nablus' Rafidiya Hospital told Ma'an, after a military incursion into his village as the army attempted to suppress a demonstration. Muhammad Qadus died of chest wounds sustained in the same incident.
According to eyewitnesses, Qadus was shot with live ammunition as soldiers invaded Iraq Burin, a village south of Nablus, after residents demonstrated to protest settler harassment and restrictions of access to their lands.
Israel's army has maintained that its forces used rubber-coated bullets to disperse a violent riot, following a Ma'an inquiry into allegations that both boys sustained injuries consistent with live ammunition.
"Contrary to what was published, live fire was not used. The Palestinians were hurt by rubber bullets used during the incident," an Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an on Saturday and reiterated on Sunday, citing an initial inquiry.
But medical findings appeared to corroborate testimony by witnesses, a senior Palestinian Authority official, and emergency responders that regardless of the circumstances, rubber-coated bullets could not have caused the injuries in question.
An X-ray of Useid's head, taken as doctors in Nablus prepared for what would be an futile emergency surgery at Rafidiya Hospital, appears to show a live bullet lodged in his skull, rather than the roundish rubber-coated bullets used by the army.
"It's very clear this isn't a rubber bullet," said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli rights advocate who co-founded Anarchists Against the Wall.
"The IDF uses two types of rubber bullets; one is shaped like a ball and the other is cylindrical," Pollak told Ma'an. "The object lodged in Useid's skull is shaped like a prism, pointed at the end. It's a bullet."
In any case, Pollak said postmortem photographs of Muhammad offered even more damning evidence of the use of live ammunition.
Pollak said the body had an entry wound in the chest and an exit wound in the back. Such an injury could not have possibly been cause by anything but live fire, he said.
"Less lethal ammunition, rubber-coated bullets included, can, under no circumstances, cause such injuries, even if shot from point blank," he said. "No rubber bullet in the world would move through a 16-year-old's torso like that."
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which first obtained the X-ray late Saturday night, concurred.
"Rubber-coated steel bullets will not enter and exit the body in that way. It's very clear these injuries would not have been caused by any kind of crowd-control measure," said B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli.
"The army's explanation is simply impossible and not consistent with the evidence," Michaeli told Ma'an.
B'Tselem plans to issue a formal request that the army's military advocate general conduct a criminal investigation into the incident, both the alleged use of live fire and the apparent distribution of false information to the relevant investigative bodies.
For its part, the Israeli military has vowed to open an internal investigation. The commander of the Shomron regional brigade, Itzik Yar, will head the effort, an army spokesman said.
In the meantime, the military is sticking to its original explanation.
"IDF soldiers arrived at the scene to prevent a clash between the Palestinian rioters and Jewish civilians, and were violently attacked by the the Palestinians, who violently hurled rocks at the force," the spokesman said.
"Soldiers responded with riot-dispersal means, which included the use of rubber bullets in accordance with procedures," he added. "It should be noted that gas canisters were used prior to rubber bullets."
