On March 16, tens of hundreds of Palestinians of all political persuasions took to the streets, alleys and sidewalks as widespread rioting and protests spread across occupied East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank, Gaza and into Israel proper.
The mini intifada, or uprising, followed Hamas' call for a "Day of Rage" to protest Israel's continued Judaisation of East Jerusalem and what Palestinians see as an attempt to take over Islamic holy sites.
The numbers rioting were kept relatively low by Israeli military roadblocks and a closure imposed on the West Bank to stop Palestinians reaching Jerusalem.
More than 100 Palestinians were wounded, 16 of them suffering broken bones and stomach and eye injuries. About 80 arrested as the clashes and confrontations with Israeli security forces spread.
A number of Israeli soldiers and police were also injured.
One of the protestors told IPS: "We will be back tomorrow after school. This is not the end. We are going to come here every day and continue the protests for weeks and months."
A local youth leader Nasser Edwan (name changed) told IPS: "This is just the beginning. This is going to be an ongoing campaign against the Israeli occupation and the desecration of our holy sites."
At the Qalandiya refugee camp and checkpoint, situated between Jerusalem and Ramallah, hundreds of schoolboys and young men continually approached the Israeli checkpoint in waves, hurling stones and bottles.
Elsewhere Molotov cocktails were thrown, garbage containers set alight and one Israeli policeman was shot by a Palestinian assailant.
The Israeli military tried to disperse the rioters with rubber-coated metal bullets and teargas. But just as soon as the protesters were driven back they would advance again on the checkpoint. Scores were injured and a number arrested.
The protests raged from early in the morning to well into the night. Similar scenarios unfolded in various locations of occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank while thousands of Palestinians in Gaza took to the streets.
There has been a palpable atmosphere of suppressed anger among Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank for the last few weeks due to Israel's accelerated Judaisation of East Jerusalem.
Tensions were worsened on March 15 with the inauguration of a Jewish synagogue on a site where a mosque used to be in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.
Attempts by Jewish extremists to enter the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, have also fueled Palestinian anger. These extremists have said that they would like to build the third Jewish Temple on al-Aqsa's remains.
The importance of al-Aqsa to even moderate and secular Muslims is not appreciated in many Western quarters.
A secular and former senior activist of the Fatah movement in Jerusalem's Old City told IPS: "Al-Aqsa is a red line which nobody must cross."
This is the reasoning behind the common ground found by the leadership of both main Palestinian political factions, Hamas and Fatah, as they called for their respective followers to take to the streets.
Senior Fatah-aligned members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation met in the Ambassador Hotel in occupied East Jerusalem a couple of days ago before appealing to Palestinians to take action.
The Fatah leadership also met in the same hotel in 2000 and called for defensive measures prior to the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada when then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon made his provocative visit to the al-Aqsa mosque despite being warned against doing so by Israeli security.
Furthermore, the Fatah-aligned al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have called for the Palestinian Authority to allow them to rearm and defend al-Aqsa from the Israelis.
Israel recently pardoned more than 70 former al-Aqsa members on the condition they give up their weapons and cease resistance. Hundreds of others have been pardoned by Israel over the past few years.
Hamas leader Ahmed Bahar called to renew armed attacks against Israel and urged Arab states to support the resistance.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers, living illegally on Palestinian land, have warned they will retaliate against any Palestinian rioting by mounting counter-riots.
They have also warned that they will attack "Arabs and their property" if they are prevented from entering the al-Aqsa compound in the future.
While a full-scale intifada does not appear imminent, further large-scale unrest is highly possible.
[Abridged from .Electronic Intifada]