Israel's foreign minister has warned that Palestinians are running out of time to disarm militants, while a militant group claimed responsibility for the fatal stabbing of an Israeli sitting with his girlfriend on a seaside bench.
The tensions came as US-backed peace moves were deadlocked, with Palestinians balking at a crackdown on the militants, and Israel refusing to pull out of West Bank towns as a result.
In a sign of Israel's growing impatience, Foreign Minister Mr Silvan Shalom warned today that if the Palestinian Authority didn't move on the issue soon, "the whole thing's going to blow up in our face."
Mr Shalom said Israel and the Palestinians had an informal understanding that the Palestinians would have some three weeks after the cease-fire started to begin dismantling the militant groups, as required by the road map.
"Those three weeks end this weekend," he told army radio. "There have been a few signs of activity but there's not the sort of action that's required."
His Palestinian counterpart, Mr Nabil Shaath, said that "we are committed to the cease-fire and we will make it work," adding that he saw the road map peace plan as a "winding mountain road with slippery sides and difficult bends."
"But we are going to traverse it," Mr Shaath said during a visit to Hungary.