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FIRST INTIFADA |
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FIRST INTIFADA |
In December 1987, a collective Palestinian popular uprising erupted against Israel in the West Bank and Gaza areas. This period of violence is known as the Intifada, or "shaking off." At first a spontaneous outburst instigated by false rumors and incitement by Muslim clerics, the Intifada quickly developed into a well-organized rebellion orchestrated by the PLO from its headquarters in Tunis. Masses of civilians attacked Israeli troops with stones, axes, Molotov cocktails, hand grenades, and firearms supplied by the Fatah, killing and wounding soldiers and civilians. Israeli troops, trained for combat with opposing armies, were not well prepared to fight this kind of war.
The original outbreak was a misunderstanding siezed upon as a pretext. On December 6, 1987, an Israeli was stabbed to death while shopping in Gaza. The next day, four residents of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza were killed in a traffic accident. Rumors spread that the four had been killed by Israelis as a deliberate act of revenge. Mass rioting broke out in Jabalya on the morning of December 9, during which a 17-year-old threw a Molotov cocktail at an army patrol and was killed by an IDF soldier. His death became the trigger for large-scale riots that engulfed the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
Once the violence started, each incident provided rumor material to keep the violence going. Accumulated frustrations of the Palestinians, largely the result of their own leader's policies, were vented against the Israelis. As the intifada ran its course from 1987 to 1993, the level of violence and the degree to which it was organized and coordinated by the PLO only increased.
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