The attack brought to eight the number of West Bank settlers shot dead since an Israeli F-16 bombed a packed Gaza Strip neighborhood on July 22.

Palestinians broke the Israeli military curfew, opening their shops and thronging the streets of Nablus in their thousands in defiance of the army. The curfew is supposed to be in force 24 hours a day, but yesterday the narrow lanes of the old city were so packed with people it was impossible to move.

“We destroyed the curfew,” said Mahyoub Abu Salaeh, the manager of a petrol station. “We need to eat and we can’t stay at home and eat.”

Nablus has been under curfew for the past 38 days. During this time, the curfew has been lifted only six times, for a few hours for people to buy food.

People have been unable to work or send their children to school. West Bank towns have for months been under an Israeli military closure order that prevents people getting their produce out of town to sell, or going to work in Israel.

Now people have taken matters into their own hands, defying the curfew for four days in a row. The protest was started by local people in the old city. Then the Palestinian Authority governor called on everyone to join and the defiance spread. The Israeli soldiers have so far done nothing.

There was nervousness on the streets of Nablus. Two Jewish settlers were shot dead by Palestinians just outside town in the morning, and many feared the army might act. When three Israeli vehicles sped through town, people ran for cover. The army has fired on those breaking curfew before. Yesterday the vehicles passed quietly.

“We broke the curfew because we have no work and we’re fed up,” said Imad Zakato, a butcher. Great sides of meat hung outside his shop in the burning sun. The Palestinians are not allowed to sell their own products but they are allowed to buy Israeli produce.

“We are dead already,” Zekeriya Abu Said said when we asked if he was scared. “We don’t have anything. What are we scared of?”

In Jerusalem, police said they had nearly averted the blast when officers spotted a suspicious-looking teenager who then ducked into a falafel shop and detonated his bag of explosives.