The weekend had begun on an optimistic note, with President Abbas embarking upon his ambitious five nation tour that will culminate later this week in Washington, and with Israeli and Palestinian officials making hopeful noises in public about ongoing bilateral discussions on prisoner release, troop withdrawal and Gaza border issues. In a rare gesture, Israel had allowed West Bank ID holding Palestinians on Friday to travel through checkpoints into Jerusalem to pray at al-Haram al-Sharif, and restrictions on movement throughout the West Bank had been eased in honor of Ramadan. The mood in the Occupied Territories seemed, at the approach of Sunday, somewhat sunnier than usual.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, one act of meaningless violence, and the response that followed, demonstrated how illusory and presumptuous that hope was, and demonstrated, further, how hard it is for either side to place any faith in the intentions of the other.

Unidentified Palestinian gunmen shot and killed three young Israeli settlers and wounded five more near the Israeli settlement Gush Etzion (which neighbors the Palestinian town Bethlehem) on Sunday afternoon. In response, Israeli authorities announced publicly the suspension of all official contacts with Palestinians; the Israeli army made rounds of pre-dawn arrests of Palestinians who were deemed to be “militants;” all checkpoints were closed to West Bank ID holding Palestinians; the Palestinian towns of Hebron and Bethlehem were encircled by troops and sealed off from the rest of the West Bank; the main road (route 60) that connects the northern West Bank to the south was, along with several other crucial well-trafficked roads, including the road between Ramallah to Birzeit (the main university in the West Bank) forbidden to all Palestinian vehicles; various temporary checkpoints were erected around Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron; and all previous travel restrictions and closures were reinstated. And all this in one day.

If that were not enough, unnamed Israeli security officials claimed today that Israel is planning to impose a permanent “traffic separation” in the West Bank, with Israeli motorists using main highways and Palestinians forced only to drive on back roads. To make matters worse, several Israeli authorities also indicated in conversations with journalists that the closures instated yesterday would be permanent.

Sunday’s events have grave human rights consequences for millions of people. All Palestinians living in the West Bank will lose once again the vital freedoms of movement, association and worship; they will suffer the violence routinely incurred during “stepped up” Israeli army raids of their homes and villages; they will lose their jobs and their livelihoods which depend on free movement of goods and services; they will once again be disconnected from their families living in the West Bank and sealed off from each other. Daily life, which is always a nightmare in the West Bank, has become, in a matter of minutes this Sunday, an outlandish, living, hell.

But that is not the worst of it. The worst consequence of the bloody events on Sunday is the indefinite suspension of preliminary talks that had begun between the sides, and the further erosion of trust, which is so necessary a component of successful negotiations. Amid bellicose statements by Israeli officials about the need to send “a very strong and sharp message to the Palestinians,” and inadequate statements by Palestinian politicians about the “unfortunate” shootings, the nascent hope that had suffused the region as recently as Friday has been all but forgotten.

While it remains to be seen whether President Abbas can repair the damage done during his visit to Washington, and whether he can convince the Israelis to recommence talks and to stop punishing innocent Palestinians for the crimes of the few, the conclusions, for now, are clear. It is an old story, but one worth repeating for the record: nascent hopes can always be dashed in a matter of minutes, by one rash act; and blood seems always only to beget more blood. As we mourn the lives lost yesterday, we must mourn this too.