BEITIN, West Bank — Children are watching television all night and lolling in pajamas until late afternoon. Parents are scraping together savings to hire tutors. Day care centers have extended their hours. Laith Zeidan, 17, is spending his days working in his uncle’s carwash because, as he put it, “my dad said I had to stay off the streets.”

Public schools across the West Bank have been shuttered since Feb. 7, in an unprecedented teacher strike against the ossifying Palestinian government. A dispute that began with the teachers’ demand for a pay raise has spiraled into the largest demonstrations in the West Bank in years, and a broad challenge to the Palestinian Authority, which is facing a severe budget shortfall and has responded with threats of arrests and mass firings.

The strike was organized through social media under a hashtag that translates to #dignity_for_teachers, and is a protest against the educators’ official union as well as the government. Palestinian leaders have refused to speak to the group’s representatives, and are accused of forcing a Palestinian legislator who tried to mediate an end to the crisis into early retirement.

On Monday, as the latest demonstration raged in Ramallah, the West Bank city that is the seat of the Palestinian government, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah issued a statement saying he hoped to soon reach an agreement, though he did not provide any specifics.