Intifada: From civil disobedience to armed resistance
Since 1987, Palestinians have taken part in at least three major uprisings against Israeli occupation
The first Palestinian Intifada erupted in late 1987 when an Israeli military vehicle struck a car, killing four Palestinian passengers.
The incident triggered massive street demonstrations that quickly spread across the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.
Over the next six years, street protests transformed into an organized campaign of civil disobedience -- and armed resistance -- against Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine.
Hundreds of Palestinians and scores of Israelis were killed in the violence, including civilians from both sides.
Resistance movement Hamas was established shortly after the uprising began and played a major role organizing resistance operations against Israel.
The Intifada, which ended in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Accords, was followed by a second, much deadlier uprising.
In 1999, U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which was created by the Oslo Accords, collapsed.
A year later, right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon visited Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.
Sharon’s provocative visit to the flashpoint site prompted a fresh wave of Palestinian protest and resistance, both in the occupied territories and inside Israel itself.
The second Intifada, which left more than 4,400 Palestinians dead and thousands more injured, ended with Israel’s 2005 military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
A third spate of Israeli-Palestinian violence erupted in October 2015 after Israeli security forces repeatedly stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Referred to as the Third Intifada, the Intifada of the Knives or the Jerusalem Uprising, this wave of unrest -- which left 160 Palestinians and 26 Israelis dead -- tapered out in early 2016 amid a massive Israeli security crackdown.
