Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the first Palestinian Intifada, which broke out on December 8th, 1987 as an Israeli truck run over a car carrying a group of Palestinian labors in Jabaliya camp, north of Gaza strip. As four Palestinians died and others got injured, the intifada started in Jabaliya camp and then moved to all of the camps and cities of Palestine.
"Intifada of Stones" is the nickname of the First Intifada regarding the use of stones as a tool of defense and offense by the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation.
As the Palestinian youth were an essential element in the intifada, the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising, a combined group of political Palestinian factions, which aimed at ending the Israeli occupation and gaining independence, was the main leader.
The outbreak of the intifada coincides with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's declaration of establishing the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. On December 14th, 1978, after 5 days of the outbreak, Hamas launched the first statement clarifying all of their politics and directions.
Hamas gradually developed its methods during the intifada, starting from strikes, demonstrations, and stone-throwing to Knives, guns, and killing agents, families, and Israeli officers, soldiers, and settlers. In response, the IOF closed the Palestinian universities, expelled the activists, and destroyed dozens of houses.
Estimates of the death toll resulting from the Israeli occupation attacks reached 1162 martyrs, including 241 children, 90 thousand wounded, 1228 houses destroyed, 140 thousand trees uprooted from the Palestinian fields and farms. Due to a statistic by Al-Asra Center for studies, the IOF also arrested about 60 thousand Palestinians from Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Arab Israelis.
The First Palestinian Intifada stopped with the signing of Oslo accords between the Israeli Occupation and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993.
Source : Safa