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Facts about the First Intifada

December 9, 2017 at 9:00 am

Clashes been Israeli forces and Palestinians can be seen during the First Intifada [HistoryTime/Twitter]

The First Intifada is typically dated from 9 December 1987.

It involved many forms of civil disobedience, including: massive demonstrations, general strikes, refusal to pay taxes, boycotts of Israeli products, graffiti and underground ‘freedom schools’, as well as unarmed forms of resistance such as stone-throwing and Molotov cocktails.

By the end of 1988, there had been 23,092 demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

In the first three weeks of the uprising, more than 20 Palestinians were killed, with no Israeli fatalities.

According to B’Tselem, by September 1993, Israeli forces had killed 1,070 Palestinians in the oPt, including 237 children, with an additional 54 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers.

Read: 250,000 Palestinians injured since First Intifada

A further 38 Palestinians were killed by state forces and civilians inside the Green Line.

During the same time period, 162 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed, the majority in the oPt.

The Israeli army conducted extrajudicial assassinations using undercover units.

Army commanders instructed troops to break the bones of demonstrators.

During the first two years of the uprising, over half of the more than 5,000 wounded were children.

Deportation orders were issued by Israeli occupation authorities against 58 Palestinians in the first two years of the uprising, in violation of international law.

Read: Why was the First Intifada doomed to fail?

In 1992, Israel deported more than 400 Palestinians suspected of membership in Hamas and Islamic Jihad to southern Lebanon.

Some 175,000 Palestinians were jailed at one time or another during the intifada.

During this period, Israel had the highest per capita prison population in the world.

In the first two years of the intifada, more than 5,000 Palestinians were held in administrative detention (no charge or trial).

Thousands of Palestinian detainees were tortured.

In a systematic method of collective punishment, around 2,000 Palestinian homes were demolished by the Israeli army in the oPt.

On this day: Remembering the First Intifada