The fate of Palestinian political prisoners has not only helped bring the Wye peace accord to a halt and triggered street battles - it has also become a test of Yasser Arafat's credibility.
The estimated 3,000 Palestinians still held in Israeli jails for politically motivated offences represent the young grassroots leadership which emerged from the squalid refugee camps and Palestinian towns in Gaza and the West Bank during the 1987-93 Intifada (uprising).
Most were jailed when Mr Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organisation lieutenants were in exile in Tunis. They attacked Jewish settlers and killed suspected Palestinian collaborators on orders from Tunis.
Their street warfare is credited by most Palestinians with forcing Israel to the negotiating table with Mr Arafat in Madrid and Oslo.
Now the families of these Intifada veterans want Mr Arafat to repay the debt. They protest every day in the West Bank and Gaza, holding framed portraits of their sons in silent rebuke.
Yihye Mabrukeh was jailed for life for killing a suspected Palestinian collaborator 11 years ago when he was a teenager. His neighbours in Nablus revere him as a national hero.
"He is a fighter for the Palestinian people," said his mother, Alia. "Before Oslo, it was war, and acceptable to kill." Mr Arafat returned from Wye with a signed Israeli undertaking to release 750 prisoners. But when the first 250 were freed, most were car thieves and drug-pushers.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, said the agreement did not specify the grade of prisoners. Palestinians say it was clear that political prisoners should be freed.
Many Palestinian protesters believe the prisoner crisis is a product of Israeli double-dealing and Palestinian incompetence.
Mr Issa Qarakeh, a leader of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club now in the second week of a hunger strike, said: "Our leaders were naive and mistakes were made." He argued that Mr Arafat may have been in too much of a hurry to please his hosts in the United States.
According to Mr Bassam Eid, director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, there are more than 3,000 political prisoners now in Israeli jails.
Ms Jessica Montell, of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, said: "Israeli security forces have a wide range of charges to arrest Palestinians, but no charges have been found for the 80 people in administrative detention. They are there mostly because they are opposed to the peace process and can influence their communities."
Most are Islamists, and she suggested this was why Mr Arafat did not demand amnesty for them.
Many in the rank-and-file of Fatah - Mr Arafat's party - are questioning Mr Arafat's motives, accusing him of not making enough effort because the prisoners are a rival source of leadership.
Ghassan, a leader of the "shabibah", Fatah's youth wing, at the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, said the Palestinians "were negotiating for their own interests, not those of the ordinary people".
AFP adds: Mr Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out yesterday that Israel could be flexible on the issue of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
He insisted at a press conference that Israel would not release prisoners who had murdered Israelis but added: "Concerning categories of prisoners other than those with blood on their hands, there could be some flexibility."
Mr Netanyahu claims virtually all those held by his government are either radical Islamists still opposed to peace or militants with "Israeli blood on their hands" - men he refuses to release.