A picture of Odeh standing alone in front of a tank, with a stone in his hand and arm bent back to throw it, was taken by a photojournalist from the Associated Press on 29 October 2000.

[5] When the Al-Aqsa Intifada began in September 2000, Odeh started skipping school to participate in the action, either at the Karni crossing or the Israeli settlement of Netzarim.

According to the Post, "The next time Fayek heard that Faris had been at a clash point, he got tougher; he tied the boy's hands and feet together and left him on the roof after dinner.

[5] His mother Anam would repeatedly go to the sites of the worst fighting in search of her son, often finding him at the front of the crowd, nearest the Israeli troops.

'"[5] On 29 October 2000, Associated Press photographer Laurent Rebours captured the iconic photo of Odeh, who, according to a subsequent AP story, "reveled in his role as the most famous rock-hurler" at Karni.

[7] Now a famous photograph, the "powerful image of a boy standing alone facing-off a huge Israeli military tank" has drawn the use of the "David and Goliath" analogy by sociologist Judith Bessant.

His friends say that as Odeh crouched to pick up a stone, he was hit in the neck and that because he was so close to an Israeli tank that they had to wait an hour before they felt it was safe to remove his body and load it into an ambulance.

"[6] Like many Palestinian families who had a member killed by Israeli troops after the outbreak of the Second Intifada, the Odehs received a $10,000 cheque from Iraq's then president Saddam Hussein.

[5][8] In 2001, his slingshot appeared in an exhibit called "100 Martyrs – 100 Lives" at the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah,[12] and he was praised by Yasser Arafat in February 2002.

[13] The Faris Odeh activism award has been created in his name, granted annually by Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRCC).

[18] To French philosopher Pierre-André Taguieff, the Palestinian response to Odeh's death forms part of a popular political religion revolving around the figure of the shahid, or martyr.

Odeh's mother told reporters that he used to watch Felesteen-Al-Yawm, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine television channel, where the idea of becoming a martyr is highly regarded.

"[19] Dr Eyad al-Sarraj, founder and director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, writes that stone-throwing during the Intifada was one of the few distractions the children had.