On 8 December 1987, four Palestinians were killed in an accidental collision with an Israeli truck at the Erez Crossing, in northern Gaza. The accident sparked a significant wave of violent rioting and unrest across the Gaza Strip, which would soon spread to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. By mid-January 1988, with over 20 Palestinians having been shot and killed by Israeli forces, the unrest had coalesced into a popular uprising opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestine and based on civil disobedience under the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising: the First Intifada.
Multiple researchers and commentators have defined a first phase of the uprising as lasting from 8 December 1987 through to January 1988. Palestinian researcher Salim Tamari characterised the first phase of the First Intifada as lasting through December 1987, marked by spontaneous civil insurrection, with a second phase marked by the coalescing of the uprising around the UNLU beginning in January 1988. The Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre has defined a first phase of the Intifada as "the first few months of the uprising," characterising the phase by mass Palestinian protests, violent repression by the Israeli authorities, and shock and condemnation by international observers. Ruth Margolies Beitler of the United States Military Academy has characterised a first phase of the Intifada as occurring until mid-January 1988, marked by Israeli assumptions that the unrest was no different to previous waves of Palestinian unrest since 1967 and could be suppressed using the usual tactics. Efraim Inbar of Bar-Ilan University has also characterised the Israeli government's response to the Intifada as having a first phase during December 1987 in which the government was caught off guard and applied its usual methods of suppressing Palestinian unrest.
Underlying social and political factors
Throughout the 1980s, the social and political situation within the occupied territories became increasingly volatile. Palestinian grievances against the Israeli occupation increased, including over restrictions on political freedoms, increased Israeli settlement, and the subordination of Palestinian economic development to Israeli economic needs. Palestinian grievances against other states also increased, with a growing sentiment that other Arab states would be unable to help free Palestine from the occupation. At the same time, the Palestinian nationalist movement underwent a significant internal shift, with the PLO central leadership finding themselves in increasingly distant exile, bother increasingly powerless and corrupt, while Palestinians inside the occupied territories became increasingly involved in mass civilian organising (such as trade unions, student unions, and women's committees).
Conditions in the Gaza Strip were particularly precarious, with some Israeli commentators referring to it as a "time bomb." The Gazan citrus and fishing industries were on the verge of failure due to Israeli restrictions, a lack of investment (with Palestinians paying more in taxes to the Israeli Civil Administration than the Civil Administration invested in the occupied territories) had left Gazan schools and hospitals overcrowded and in poor condition, and even university-educated Gazans had to struggle to gain short-term manual employment each morning in Israel, where they were underpaid and under protected compared to their Israeli colleagues. The Gazan population, which had grown rapidly, was increasingly young and increasingly radical, including a growing influence of Islamism. Palestinian refugees also consisted a major portion of the Gazan population, with living conditions in the refugee camps being extremely poor. Meanwhile, Israeli land seizures and Israeli settlements in Gaza grew considerably, taking up disproportionate amounts of Gazan land and resources.
Events
Prelude
1987 had been a turbulent year inside the occupied territories, both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Several commentators have characterised the year as one of increasing volatility and simmering unrest in the occupied Palestinian territories, beginning with the December 1986 Birzeit University protests. According to Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group, "the greatest surprise, with hindsight, was that the uprising had not occurred before December 1987... from late 1986 on, there was definitely 'something in the air.'" Several major incidents occurred in the Gaza Strip that year, including a high-profile prison escape of six Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in May and the murder of the Israeli Military Police commander in the Strip in August. In November, a significant wave of unrest broke out in Gaza with the arrest and deportation of Abdul Aziz Awda, the PIJ's spiritual leader and a popular Islamic University of Gaza lecturer, as well as the death of Intisar al-Attara, a 16-year-old girl from Deir al-Balah who was killed by settlers.
December 1987 began with more volatility and violence in the Gaza Strip. On 6 December, Israeli salesman Shlomo Sakal was murdered in central Gaza City, stabbed in the neck by a Palestinian. Although some Palestinian passers-by attempted to provide first aid, the attacker escaped, and none of the passers-by cooperated with the Israeli military's investigation. As a result, the Israeli military imposed a curfew on central Gaza City. The same day, the Israeli government controversially announced that it was taking over part of the Palestinian Jerusalem District Electricity Company. The next day, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and Israeli Labor Party leader Shimon Peres sparked controversy in Israel when he gave a presentation to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in which he called for Israel to withdraw from Gaza, arguing that the costs of maintaining the occupation over the Strip outweighed the security benefits. The presentation was denounced by the Labor Party's coalition partners, including Likud leader and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
Truck accident and initial unrest in Gaza
In the afternoon of 8 December 1987, an Israeli military truck accidentally drove into a line of cars at the Erez Crossing, at the northern border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Four Palestinian workers, who had been returning to Gaza from their jobs in Israel, were killed in the accident and another seven seriously injured. A significant portion of the Gazan working population passed through the Erez Crossing daily, and the Crossing had acquired a poor reputation among Gazans due to frequent delays and checks imposed by Israeli forces guarding the Crossing. As a result, the accident was witnessed by hundreds of Palestinians.
Following the accident, rumours spread quickly throughout Gaza that the accident had been deliberate, arranged in retaliation for Sakal's murder. The rumours mixed with other misinformation, including a rumour that the truck driver had been Sakal's brother, a rumour of a killing of a Palestinian worker in the Israeli city of Ashkelon in retaliation for Sakal's murder, alleged poisoning of Gazan wells by Israeli soldiers, and an alleged secret return of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat to Gaza, sneaking past Israeli border guards in disguise. According to Bradley Burston of The Jerusalem Post, an effective "ghetto telegraph" operated in Gaza, with high mobility of the population, wide-ranging family networks, and the youthfulness of the population (with many schools having telephones but many homes not having telephones) contributing to the rapid spread of the rumours.
Fundamentalist mosques also played a significant role in spreading the rumours and in inciting the early rioting in the Gaza Strip. Throughout the 1980s, conservative Islamism had experienced significant growth in Gaza, influenced by factors such as the success of the Iranian Revolution, the formation of Hezbollah in Lebanon to fight against Israel after the 1982 Lebanon War, and Israeli support for Islamist groups inside Palestine as a strategy to undermine the influence of the PLO. John Kifner of The New York Times reported on 19 December that there was a "strong Islamic element emerging as a major factor in this round of clashes. Islamic fundamentalist groups, including one called Islamic Holy War, have made strong gains in Gaza in the last 18 months. Loudspeakers in minarets, normally used for calls to prayers, have been urging on demonstrators."
The funerals for three of the dead Palestinian workers, all from Jabalia, was held in Jabalia on the night of 8 December. The funeral was attended by several thousand Gazans, and developed into a demonstration against the Israeli occupation. Demonstrations over the accident continued the next morning, soon confronting Israeli soldiers in Gaza. According to Swedish journalist Nathan Shachar, "refugees clashed with Israeli soldiers on reserve duty, who were stunned by the unexpected assault from young men, women and even children. The Israelis, understaffed and unprepared, fired into the crowds." At least 16 Palestinians would be wounded by Israeli gunfire that day, with one, 17-year-old Hatem Abu Sisi, being killed after a group of youth threw a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli military vehicle.
One key site of early unrest in Gaza was the Al-Shifa Hospital, in northern Gaza City, the hospital which received the first Palestinian casualties of the unrest. As families and friends of the injured Gazans gathered on the hospital grounds, a demonstration broke out, which soon clashed with Israeli soldiers sent to disperse the demonstration. An American news crew on the site of the hospital was also assaulted by some of the demonstrators. Dan Fisher of The Los Angeles Times reported:
"As the wounded from earlier clashes were brought to Shifa, family members and friends gathered in the hospital, its courtyard, and outside on the street, where they were joined by local youths. The crowd swelled with the arrival of anti-Israeli protesters who joined a march organized by the Gaza Lawyers Assn. and other professional groups. Youths built barricades in the streets outside the hospital, burned tires, and taunted the Israeli soldiers sent to control the situation. When the crowds grew bolder, the Israelis fired tear gas, rubber bullets and scores of live rounds, mostly in the air. Dozens of Palestinians were arrested. But about 1:30 p.m., the soldiers charged the crowd."
Spread of the unrest to East Jerusalem and the West Bank
Although the unrest was first contained within the Gaza Strip, it would spread to the West Bank within a few days. On 10 December, the first Palestinian death of the Intifada in the West Bank occurred in Nablus, when a 19-year-old was shot and killed by Israeli forces after a group of youth began throwing stones and an iron bar at an Israeli military patrol. Later that day, the Israeli authorities imposed a 10-day publication on East Jerusalem-based newspaper Al Fajr for violating Israeli military censorship rules in its coverage of the unrest.
The next day, 11 December, the Balata Camp near Nablus became the site of a major clash between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators. The camp had been a significant site of tension over the previous two years, with Fatah's youth wing having a particularly strong presence in the camp, to the point of making the Israeli Civil Administration's control over the camp tenuous. That day, the Israeli military began an operation aiming to overcome the youth wing's presence, killing several Palestinians and injuring others. Palestinian sources reported four dead: 57-year-old woman Suhaila Kaabi, 17-year-old girl Sahar Al-Jarmi, and 11-year-old boys Abdullah Faour and Ali Ismail Abdullah. The Israeli military reported that three of its soldiers had been injured during the clashes. The deaths brought the overall death toll of the unrest to at least six Palestinians in three days. Writing in early January 1988, John Kifner of The New York Times reported:
"Since early December, Balata has been under something close to a siege as the Israeli military authorities sought to break the hold of the Shabiba, a youth movement loyal to Al Fatah, Yasir Arafat's branch of the Palestine Liberation Organization... Agents of Shin Beth, Israel's domestic security service, went through the refugee district making arrests in nighttime sweeps, according to both residents and Israeli newspaper accounts. Then the tough border police, a paramilitary unit made up largely of Druse Arabs loyal to Israel, was sent in force into Balata. Stone throwers surrounded a border police patrol in the narrow streets, and the unit opened fire, killing 3 people and wounding 10. Then, according to many residents, the border police began breaking down the doors of houses in search of suspects, smashing furniture and other possessions. The army command says it has begun an internal investigation of the incident. At different times Balata has been cordoned off, declared under curfew -which means that no one can leave home, day or night, to work or shop -or, as it was today, heavily patrolled."
The unrest would spread to East Jerusalem on 15 December. That day, Israeli Minister of Industry Ariel Sharon inflamed tensions by moving into a flat in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The move, Sharon's housewarming party attended by many prominent Israeli figures (including Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir) and guarded by a deployment of hundreds of Israeli police officers, Sharon's poor reputation among Palestinians, and the fact that the flat was leased by the settler Ateret Cohanim movement (which aimed to create a Jewish demographic majority in East Jerusalem), inflamed tensions among Palestinians.