A steadily growing wave of protests in Gaza and the West Bank is likely to culminate in still heavier violence today, when Palestinians mark the 52nd anniversary of the nakbah, the catastrophe that for them was the establishment of the state of Israel.
At least 60 Palestinians, and several Israeli soldiers, have been injured in the clashes, which began late last week and are now becoming a daily occurrence. Initially, the demonstrators gathered to protest against Israel's continued detention of some 1,600 Palestinian prisoners; negotiations on the release of several hundred of them have been deadlocked. But yesterday the protests spread throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, reflecting popular frustration with the faltering peace process.
At the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday, masked gunmen burned Israeli flags and fired bullets into a dummy, a swastika taped to its stomach, intended to represent the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak.
At the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian women brandished photographs of relatives, jailed for violent attacks on Israelis, and called for a jihad or holy war. Hundreds joined the protests, and the junction was closed for several hours as demonstrators threw petrol-bombs and stones at an army base, and Israeli soldiers responded with rubber bullets.
Last night some 650 Palestinian prisoners rioted inside the Israeli jail at Megido, and the Israeli security forces were using tear-gas and rubber bullets to try and regain control.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are trying to meet a late-May deadline for a "framework" peace accord, and a September 13th deadline for a full peace treaty. But these goals look unattainable. Mr Barak had been hoping to restore momentum to the talks by giving the Palestinians full control of three villages adjoining Jerusalem. But as the Knesset convenes for its summer session today, he may not have the votes to approve such a concession, and his governing coalition looks distinctly unstable.