Now, Palestinians are deep in an economic crisis because Israel withheld tax revenues for nearly three months, as a punishment for Palestinians’ seeking to join the International Criminal Court (they will assume full membership in April). Israel announced Friday that it would release the withheld funds, apparently in an effort to appease the Obama administration after weeks of tensions, though it will continue to hold back tax revenue.

“There’s no change, but the settlements get bigger and people are tired — if they had a chance to change, they would,” said Hassan, 27, at a two-chair falafel stall amid the crowded homes of the Amari refugee camp.

“People are being buried in starvation and unemployment,” said Hassan, who requested that his family name not be used because he feared harassment by security services. He supports his seven brothers and sisters on $12 a day earned as a day laborer.

To an increasing number of Palestinians, Mr. Abbas is inextricably enmeshed with their broader problems. A colorless leader in the 10th year of what was meant to have been a five-year term — the Palestinian leadership has not held a presidential election since 2005 — he has failed to cultivate a successor and has systematically snuffed out any challenges to his rule. He has also not capitalized on a reconciliation pact signed nearly a year ago with Hamas, or taken charge of reconstructing the Gaza Strip after last summer’s devastating war with Israel.

“The criticism against Abbas is increasing day by day because Palestinian people ask themselves, What did Mahmoud Abbas achieve until now?” said a 59-year-old retired teacher in the Amari camp, who would only give the nickname Abu Mohammed, because he feared harassment by security forces.

But the problems go beyond Mr. Abbas’s widely panned leadership, most significantly to the crushing division between Fatah, which has control of the Palestinian Authority and governs Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and Hamas, the militant Islamic group, which rules over Gaza.