Pictures| Remembering the stone-throwing Intifada
Occupied Palestine (QNN)- On this day 33 years ago, the First Intifada, or the stone-throwing Intifada, broke out in occupied Palestine. It was an uprising which would last for over five years, and witness the deaths of thousands of Palestinians. Over three decades later, the struggle for Palestinian freedom continues.
After hundreds of Palestinians witnessed the killing of four men when they were run down by an Israeli jeep outside Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza on 8 December, the indignation felt at their situation was immense. The funerals of those killed were attended by some 10,000 people, but they were forced to mourn once again the following day, when Israeli troops fired aimlessly into a crowd, killing 17 year-old Hatem Abu Sisi and wounding 16 others.
As Palestinian leaders gathered to discuss the escalating situation, protests and clashes broke out within the refugee camps, spreading rapidly across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Largely unarmed, Palestinians defended themselves only by throwing stones at the soldiers and their tanks. Shopkeepers closed their businesses and laborers refused to go to their workplaces in ‘Israel’.
After six years of daily confrontations and Israeli army breaking bones and killing of Palestinians, a total of 1550 Palestinians were killed, over 70,000 injured, between 100,000 to 200,000 were detained, among them over 18,000 were held under administrative detention for long periods of time without charge or trial.
The popular Intifada only stopped by Arafat’s signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993 which led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority.
