22 years on… The 2nd Intifada in pictures

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- 22 years ago, after Bill Clinton’s Camp David Accords failed to reach a just solution for the Palestinian cause, the head of the Israeli opposition at the time, and Prime Minister one year later, Ariel Sharon, decided to break into Al Aqsa mosque, sparking the Second Intifada across the West Bank and Gaza.

In this photo gallery, we go through some of the most iconic pictures in the Second Intifada.

21 years ago, Ariel Sharon broke into Al Aqsa mosque and invoked one of the most famous phrases in Israeli history. “The Temple Mount [Al Aqsa mosque] is in our hands,” he said, reiterating the radio broadcast from June 1967, when Israeli forces overran Jerusalem [GALLO/GETTY]

On September 30, 2000, a Palestinian cameraman from Gaza, Talal Abu Rahma, shot a video of a father and his 12-year-old son under fire on the Saladin Road, south of Gaza City. The boy, Muhammad al-Durrah, was mortally wounded and died soon after.

The video of Jamal al-Durrah trying to shield his son as bullets rained down on them was aired by France 2, the news channel Abu Rahma was working for. It became one of the most powerful images of the Second Intifada.

Amos Malka, the head of Israeli military intelligence at the time, said that Israeli forces fired more than 1,300,000 bullets in the Palestinian territories in the first month of the intifada. [Roger Lemoyne/ Getty]

By the end of 2000, at least 275 Palestinians had been killed, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem [David Silverman/GETTY]

Suicide attacks in response to the Israeli slaughter came to define the second intifada, but these did not begin in earnest until more than a year into the uprising. In this photo, we see an Israeli bus, targeted in an attack in April 10, 2002. Eight Israelis, who were all soldiers and police officers, were killed.

On October 17, 2001, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) assassinated the Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Ze’evi, in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, the Secretary General of the PFLP.
Ze’evi was also an Israeli general and politician who founded the right-wing nationalist Moledet party, mainly advocating Palestinians’ mass transfer.

In the period between April 1-15, 2002, the Israeli army raided Jenin refugee camp and slaughtered 58 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians. The refugee camp was almost entirely turned into ruins. The resistance retaliated in a violent battle, which resulted in 55 deaths among occupying Israelis.