Two conditions are required for the evolvement of an intifada: a grim reality and a guiding hand. Looking back, we can see that in the two previous intifadas, the bleak reality in the territories led to a local uprising that spread; only later on, the guiding hand came into play. It's that guiding hand that then took over and steered the intifada to its benefit.
The first intifada was ignited by a road accident at the Yad Mordechai intersection, north of the Gaza Strip in December 1987, in which four Palestinians were killed. The riots that broke out in the Jabaliya refugee camp quickly spread throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Subsequently, the Fatah movement established the “United National Command for the Escalation of the Uprising in the Occupied Territories.” The Fatah field commanders in Gaza and the West Bank controlled the intifada for about five years, until the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA).