After the first 48 hours of the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire, a pattern is beginning to emerge: each side is publicly accusing the other of failing to honour its commitments, and yet both sides are evidently working to make the truce hold. And this, in turn, is producing mounting disaffection among some Israelis and some Palestinians who accuse their own leaders of "capitulating to American pressure".
Palestinian gunmen, under firm orders from the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, are no longer taking pot shots at the Jewish neighbourhood of Gilo on the southern edge of Jerusalem - built on land claimed by Israel as part of its sovereign capital, but regarded by the Palestinians as occupied West Bank territory. The Palestinian Authority has deployed security personnel to keep the gunmen out of Beit Jala, from where the shooting had originated, and is also now said to be financing the renovation of Palestinian homes in the town - homes that had been hard hit by Israel's retaliatory gunfire.
Israeli troops, for their part, have been ordered by the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, not to resort to the use of live ammunition in countering Palestinian demonstrators.
There were several clashes in the West Bank and Gaza yesterday - including one near the town of Khan Younis, in Gaza, where soldiers injured six Palestinians, one of them seriously. The soldiers were using rubbercoated steel bullets - potentially lethal. But live fire, in similar circumstances, would more likely have caused fatalities.
Mr Sharon is still accusing Mr Arafat of failing to take all the necessary steps to make the ceasefire stable - most especially by arresting about 20 Hamas activists alleged to have masterminded suicide bombings. Mr Arafat is still accusing Mr Sharon of merely talking about easing restrictions on Palestinians' movement, while leaving most of the network of roadblocks and checkpoints intact.
While Israel said yesterday that it had lifted its blockade in parts of Tulkarm and Hebron, and eased fishing restrictions off Gaza, such upbeat presentations, said Mr Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, did "not reflect the reality on the ground".
And there is no doubting the profound mistrust that still characterises Israeli-Palestinian relations - hardly surprising after nine months in which close to 500 Palestinians and more than 100 Israelis have been killed. Israeli officials are convinced that Mr Arafat has merely called a temporary halt to the violence, because of unprecedented US and European pressure following the June 1st Tel Aviv suicide bombing, and that Hamas and the other militants have been told merely to hold their fire for now.
The Palestinians believe that Mr Sharon is merely building up international credit for his perceived restraint so that, at the first re-eruption of heavy violence, he can formally brand Mr Arafat an enemy of peace and directly target the Palestinian Authority.
Both Jewish settlers and Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah activists are now accusing their respective leaders of capitulating to US pressure.
In Nablus yesterday, 2,000 Palestinian demonstrators burned photographs of the CIA director, Mr George Tenet, the man who brokered the ceasefire, and demanded the continuation of the intifada. At the West Bank settlement of Neve Tsuf, where three Israelis were shot on Thursday night, settlers yesterday erected an outpost at the scene of the attack, and demanded a forceful army response.
The real test of the ceasefire will be in the way Mr Arafat and Mr Sharon respond to these demands. And that, to a large extent, may depend on the degree of continuing US involvement.
Mr Tenet is now back in the US, but more junior CIA personnel were on hand to mediate a meeting yesterday of Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs.