Palestinian frustration at the lack of peace progress exploded across the West Bank yesterday, causing clashes with Israeli soldiers that left at least four Palestinians reported dead, 300 Palestinians wounded, and several Israeli soldiers hurt as well.
It was the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence for almost four years, and underlined the anger on the Palestinian streets that, almost seven years after the peace process began, most of the West Bank still remains under Israeli occupation. The peace process was supposed to have been completed by last May, and the Palestinians were assured by their leadership that the occupation of the West Bank would be over by then.
Instead, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are still at odds over many of the key issues that have always been in dispute - including the fate of Jerusalem, the presence of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and the dimensions of the planned independent state.
The clashes came after several days of intensifying protests, focused initially on demands for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The escalation yesterday coincided with "Nakba" day - the anniversary of the "catastrophe", as Palestinians view it, of Israel's establishment 52 years ago.
Officials on both sides had anticipated violence - indeed, Israel is accusing the Palestinian Authority of deliberately fomenting it - but it rapidly flared out of control.
One of the worst flashpoints was at the Ayosh junction, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah. Hundreds of Palestinians gathered and threw stones at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. As the confrontation intensified, gunfire was exchanged between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian policemen - on rooftops, and among the protesters.
Israel Television said that the Israeli soldiers had been given orders to "shoot to kill" any Palestinian policeman seen firing in their direction.
A Palestinian journalist, Maher Abu Khater, who works for a German news agency, was badly wounded in the neck.
Ironically, the violence erupted on the same day that Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, won cabinet and parliamentary approval for the handover of three Palestinian villages adjacent to Jerusalem to Palestinian control - a move intended to restore momentum to the peace efforts.