On September 28, 2000, Likud Party chairman Ariel Sharon, guarded by hundreds of Israeli soldiers, visited the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. What Israelis viewed as a domestic political challenge to Prime Minister Barak, Palestinians saw as an affront by the right-wing leader found to bear personal responsibility for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres. The following afternoon, Palestinians leaving prayers threw stones at Israeli police and worshipers at the Western Wall. Police charged the area. The subsequent confrontation left 70 police officers injured by Palestinian rock throwing, 6 Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire, and more than 220 Palestinians wounded.

The next day, thousands demonstrated in areas where PA-controlled territory bordered Israeli military deployments throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition. On the second day of the uprising, 12 Palestinians were killed and 500 injured; on the third day, 12 more Palestinians, 1 Palestinian citizen of Israel, and the first Israeli soldier were killed. It would later be reported that Israeli troops fired 1 million shots in those initial days, what a security official recognized as “a bullet for every child.” Palestinian casualties during the first three months nearly totaled those of the entire first year of the first Intifada. Beyond the numbers, some events became focal points, such as the killing of eight-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah in Gaza, which was caught on camera footage and viewed around the world.