Modern Era · Middle East · Politics

1987

First intifada begins

December 9, 1987

After an Israeli truck killed four Palestinian workers in Gaza, demonstrations spread through the occupied territories like wildfire. Stones and Molotov cocktails met Israeli bullets and tear gas. The uprising ran for six years, transformed Palestinian politics by empowering a new generation, made Yitzhak Rabin say they were a problem that required a political solution, and helped force the Oslo Accords of 1993.