In what they said was desperation rather than defiance, thousands of Palestinians ignored the Israeli-imposed curfew in Nablus yesterday, and crowded into the markets to stock up on food and supplies.
The unprecedented mass action came after 40 days in which Nablus has been held under only intermittently lifted curfews, as part of the Israeli reinvasion of West Bank cities that followed two suicide bombings in Jerusalem. While the army has gradually eased curfews in Qalkilya, Tulkarm and Hebron this week, it has kept Nablus under a firmer grip as it remains on high alert.
Indeed, the army announces the interception of alleged suicide-bomb plotters almost daily, and last night set up roadblocks in parts of central Israel for fear that a bomber was en route. Troops were reported to have killed three Palestinians in Gaza yesterday - two during clashes in Rafah, where soldiers was said to be blowing up tunnels used to smuggle in arms from Egypt, and the third, a Hamas gunman, intercepted in an attempted raid on a Jewish settlement.
Nablus residents were encouraged by their local governor, Mr Mahmoud Aloul, to "get our rights by ourselves" and go shopping despite the curfew. Many residents were going hungry or were in urgent need of medicine, he said.
There have been several incidents in recent weeks of Palestinians being killed by Israeli troops - including four people in Jenin, three of them young children, on June 21st - amid confusion over whether curfews were in force or not. Yesterday, however, Israeli troops made no attempt at enforcement.
"We are aware of the violations," said a spokesman. "But we are not responding." Castigated over the killings of 16 Palestinian civilians in its elimination of Hamas military commander Salah Shehade in Gaza City last week, and with international studies citing malnutrition among Palestinian children, the army was presumably wary of entering a violent confrontation with residents of Nablus out buying food.
In continuing political fallout from that airstrike, a leading Labour politician yesterday produced what he said was a Palestinian Authority document demonstrating that the Fatah Tanzim, responsible for numerous recent attacks, had been on the point of issuing a ceasefire declaration prior to the Israeli raid. Fatah officials, said Mr Haim Ramon, were readying to call a halt to "all acts of terror against civilians."
However, Mr Ramon's own party leader and rival, the Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, rubbished the claim, saying that the Fatah officials supporting a ceasefire did not have the influence to get it implemented. Mr. Ben-Eliezer said he hoped for more serious progress in talks he was intending to hold shortly with the Palestinian Authority.