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).

The second intifada erupted after then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in September 2000. Once again, the local riots spread quickly; however, it then took the Hamas movement some six months to be the leading command of the violent incidents.

In 2014, reams of information have been written in articles, research reports and intelligence assessments on the despair and hopelessness that have led to the current round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. And even if some in the Israeli defense establishment believe that it's still too early to classify the recent bloody events as a third intifada, it is already clear that the guiding hand calling for and inciting to violence and terrorist attacks is, once again, the Hamas movement.