Sand Bullets for Israeli Troops

First it was sonic ray guns. Now the Israeli military is "replacing its sometimes lethal rubber-coated steel pellets with compressed sand bullets," says the AP.

Rubber bullets have killed dozens of Palestinians in the past two decades. The new sand bullets were originally developed for close-quarter hostage rescue situations...
The new round, in which the head of the bullet is made from compressed sand and can be fired from a regular rifle, has already been used in the West Bank against Palestinians protesting against the separation barrier Israel is building, the army said.
The sand bullet, said to be extremely painful but less dangerous because it does not penetrate the skin, was developed and first used by Israel's Prisons Authority, the army said. The rubber bullets will be phased out.

My guess is that the "sand" will provide sufficient mass to gain the stand-off distances they needed and obtained with their rubber coated steel pellets but with reduced ability to penetrate and imbed themselves into the body...
It sounds like a variation of the frangible rounds we've been experimenting with. It began with a round nicknamed the "Avon Round," that used Xerox powder and dental plaster. It remained intact until it struck an object -- and then it released excess kinetic energy by breaking into "dust." The breaching round got nicknamed the "Avon Round" because when it strikes a door lock, it pulverizes itself into harmless powder.