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2000.09.28-2005.02.08 - The Second Intifada

Aug 23, 202413 min read

Sources

  1. ”Second Intifada” Wikipedia. Accessed April 27th, 2024.
  2. Ben-Ami, Shlomo. Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy. Cary: Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2007.

Belligerents

  1. Israel
    1. Notable Leaders
      1. Prime Minister Ehud Barak (until March 7th, 2001)
      2. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (after March 7th, 2001)
  1. Palestinian Authority
    1. PLO / Fatah
      1. Notable Leaders
        1. Chairman Yasser Arafat (until death on November 11th, 2004)
        2. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (after November, 2004)
        3. Marwan Barghouti
    2. Hamas
      1. Notable Leaders
        1. Ahmed Yassin
        2. Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi
        3. Khaled Mashal
        4. Ismail Haniyeh
        5. Mohammed Deif Involved Units
  2. National Security Forces
  3. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades
  4. Palestinian Islamic Jihad
  5. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
  6. Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
  7. Popular Resistance Committees

Casualties and losses

  1. Israel
    1. 1,010 Israelis total
      1. 644 - 773 Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians
      2. 215 - 301 Israeli troops killed by Palestinians
  1. Palestine
    1. 3,179 - 3,354 Palestinians total
      1. 2,739 - 3,168 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops
      2. 152 - 406 Palestinians killed by Palestinians
      3. 34 Palestinians killed by Israeli civilians

Location

  • Israel and Palestine

Causes

  • Background
    • Violence continued on both sides after the Oslo accords were signed in 1993.
    • Israel engaged in regimental level exercises that were in preparation for peace talks to fail, so it could conquer towns in Area C.
    • The failure of the Camp David Summit lead to a significant fracturing of the PLO as many Fatah factions abandoned it to join Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
    • Netanyahu’s government pushed for the construction of a new neighborhood, Har Homa, in East Jerusalem, and continued construction within existing Israeli settlements. Construction in the years following the Oslo Accords was still significantly less than prior, however.
    • Barak secured an agreement for the dismantling of 12 new outposts in 1998, but continued expansion was occurring in existing settlements in the West Bank. This continued to hurt the Palestinian peace process.
  • Sharon visits the Temple Mount on September 28th, 2000.
    • Sharon visits the Temple Mount, without stepping inside, but this still angers local Palestinians living in Jerusalem. Violence breaks out.
    • Multiple senior Palestinian officials encouraged Sharon not to visit. Sharon was determined to make a show of Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
  • In 1982, the Kahan Commission found that Ariel Sharon was found to bear personal responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre that occurred against Palestinians in the Lebanese Civil War.
    • Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount 10 days after the annual memorial day for said massacre is said to have been the inciting moment for the beginning of the Second Intifada.

Events

  • First days of the intifada
    • Violence broke out heavily in the days following, with losses on the Palestinian side far outweighing Israeli losses.
    • The broadcasted killing of Muhammad al-Durrah, caught by a French news crew, was initially assumed to be the responsibility of the IDF, which they promptly apologized for, though much controversy remains over who actually shot and killed the boy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUz55tLLXUg&t=1019s
  • The October 2000 events
    • Several clashes occurred within Israel and the Gaza Strip, followed by a general strike, more escalations with police, thousands of Jews participating in violent acts in Tel Aviv, and a recommendation from the Or Commission to dismiss Shlomo Ben-Ami from Minister of Public Security.
  • The Ramallah lynching
    • The PA police arrested two Israeli reservists who had accidentally entered Ramallah, where a hundred Palestinians had been killed in the preceding weeks.
    • An Italian television crew captured and broadcasted the killings, where both soldiers were beaten, stabbed and disembowelled, with one body being set on fire.
  • November and December
    • Clashes continue. Israel settlements in Gilo come under Palestinian heavy machine gun fire from Beit Jala.
    • Palestinian deaths continue to outnumber Israeli deaths.
  • 2001
    • The Taba Summit failed to produce results by the end of January.
    • On January 17th, an Israeli teenager, Ofir Rahum, was murdered after being lured into Ramallah by a 24-year-old Palestinian, a member of Fatah’s Tanzim, after an online relationship had sparked.
    • After Sharon’s election in 2001 over Barak, he refuses to meet with Yasser Arafat.
    • More violence occurs through March, with 8 Israelis and 26 Palestinians dying. In Hebron, a Palestinian sniper is reported by the IDF to have intentionally targeted and shot/killed a 10 month old Israeli baby.
    • In May of 2001, the IDF captured a vessel carrying $10m of weapons from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was destined for the Gaza coast.
    • On June 1st a suicide bombing killing 21 Israeli civilians, most high schoolers, by the Islamic Jihad, hampered the American attempts to negotiate a cease-fire.
  • 2002
    • The IDF captured Karine A, a freighter carrying weapons from Iran, believed to be intended for Palestinian militant use against Israel. It was claimed that top officials in the PA were involved in the smuggling.
    • On the 28th of March the Arab Peace Initiative, endorsed by Arafat, encourages a two state solution, with Israel withdrawing all troops to the pre 1967 borders, with a full Right of Return for every Arab Palestinian.
    • On the 29th of March, Operation Defensive Shield has the IDF making incursions throughout the West Bank. The UN estimates 497 Palestinians killed and 1,447 wounded, with 4,258 arrested.
    • In April, the Battle of Jenin takes place. This was a huge battle seeing fierce urban combat by the IDF to clear out the refugee camp of the city of Jenin.
  • 2003
    • Israeli intelligence report claimed Arafat had paid $20,000 to the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
      • US pressure caused the PA to appoint Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian prime minister.
        • Mahmoud Abbas has a thesis that the early Zionist leaders and Nazi leaders collaborated to encourage Jewish migration to Mandatory Palestine.
    • On June of 2003, a temporary armistice was unilaterally declared by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Fighting continues.
    • After an August 19th Hamas suicide bus attack, the IDF were ordered to kill or capture all Hamas leadership in Hebron and the Gaza Strip, with at least all of the bus suicide bombing plotters being captured or killed, and Hamas leadership in Hebron being badly damaged.
    • In later 2003, the Israeli West Bank barrier is constructed. Israel claims its necessary to prevent terrorists from entering Israeli cities, while Palestinians claim it separates their communities and acts as a de facto annexation of their territory.
  • 2004
    • The IDF operates heavily in Rafah, to search and destroy smuggling tunnels used by militants to obtain a variety of weapons and supplies. Between 2000-2004, 90 tunnels connecting Egypt and the Gaza Strip were found and destroyed.
      • 16,000 Palestinians are displaced as the IDF demolishes what they are claim are empty or militant homes.
    • In February, Ariel Sharon announced a plan to withdraw all Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.
      • Yossi Beilin, a peace advocate and the architect of the Oslo Accords and the Geneva Accord, rejected the proposed withdrawal plan and claimed that without a peace agreement in place, it would reward terror.
    • After announcing the declaration plan, two subsequent Hamas leaders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi were killed.
  • 2005
    • Palestinian presidential elections were held on the 9th of January, with Mahmoud Abbas winning the election.
      • Abbas was a platform of peaceful negotiation with Israel and non-violence to achieve Palestinian objectives.
      • Sharon froze all diplomatic and security contacts with the PNA until Abbas shows a real effort to stop the terror.
      • Abbas ordered Palestinian police to deploy in northern Gaza to prevent Qassam rocket and mortar shelling over Israeli settlements. Attacks would decrease sharply soon after.
  • On February 8th, Sharon and Abbas declared a mutual truce.
    • Hamas and Islamic Jihad said the truce doesn’t affect them.
    • 25-50 Qassam rockets and mortar shells were fired into an Israeli Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim. Abbas ordered the PA security forces to stop such attacks in the future, and fired senior commanders in the PA security apparatus.
    • IDF forces arrested Maharan Omar Shucat Abu Hamis, a Palestinian resident of Nablus, who was about to launch a suicide bus attack in the French Hill in Jerusalem.
    • On February 13th, Abbas engages Islamic Jihad and Hamas in talks to respect the truce.
    • Ismail Haniyah, a senior leader of the group Hamas, said its position will remain unchanged and Israel will bear responsibility for any new violation of aggression.
    • Palestinian factions continued to attack settlements in Gaza and cities in Israel, until July 15th, when Israel resumed its targeted killing policy.
    • Hamas militants are battling PA policemen in the streets.

Outcome

  • Aftermath
    • On February 8th, 2005, Sharon and Abbas reach a truce, with Sharon releasing 900 Palestinian prisoners, withdrawing from West Bank towns, and finishing the Gaza withdrawal.
      • Abbas reached an agreement 5 days later with Hamas and the PIJ to ensure the truce remains as long as Israeli violations did not happen.
    • A number of people from Hamas leadership and a former military commander of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine all claim that Arafat had pre-planned the Second Intifada after realizing he would not get the concessions he wanted in the Camp David Accords. His widowed wife, Suha Arafat also claimed the same.
    • Israeli’s unilateral pullout from Lebanon was seen by the PLO as “optimistic”, and an “example for other Arabs seeking to regain their rights.”
    • Israeli’s military response in 2001 destroyed much infrastructure that was involved in the arming of Palestinian forces; some 90 paramilitary camps had been set up to train Palestinian youths in armed conflict. Some 40,000 armed and trained Palestinians existed in the occupied territories.
    • Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the Fatah Tanzim, claimed he was attempting to instigate a second intifada leading up to the al-Aqsa visit by Sharon, contacting all Palestinian factions throughout Palestine. He also claimed that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon was a factor which contributed to the Intifada.
  • More Aftermath
    • On January 25th, 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian elections with an unexpected majority of 74 seats, compared to 45 for Fatah.
  • In the 2001 and 2002 Arab League Summits, the Arab states pledged support for the Second Intifada just as they had pledged support for the First Intifada in two consecutive summits in the late 1980s.

Important Notes

  • Noteworthy things for modern conflict
    • History of huge employment of suicide bombers explicitly targeting civilians.
    • History of shipments of weapons via ocean into Gaza Strip.
    • History of hiding militants inside “refugee” camps/cities.
    • History of one-sided military capability of Israel vs the Palestinians.
    • History of Israel denying UN or Human Rights groups to investigate after battles.
    • Israeli government explicit support for settler camps and refusal to remove them (Netenyahu and Sharon).

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