As Israeli bombs continue to rain down on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian population is struggling to survive without power or water infrastructure. Said Abdelwahed, a Professor of English Literature at Al Azhar University-Gazawho and a colleague of our partner, the Palestinan Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC), shares his late-night thoughts:

One of the best things about working at Grassroots International is the incredible circle of people we are able to connect with.

Waiting is something Palestinians live with — they wait in refugee camps established as temporary solutions in 1948, they wait in political limbo, they wait to learn what the disengagement plan will mean for their lives, and they wait in lines. (We ourselves found ourselves waiting in an hour long line to get into Ramallah yesterday for a meeting with our partner, the Rural Womens' Development Society.)

Many in the West Bank do not have to wait, however, to see how the geographic lines will be drawn in the peace plan blueprints because construction has already been completed in several areas. In the north, the Wall now completely encircles the city of Qalqiliya and encloses Tulkarm in a dead zone between the Wall and the invisible Green Line established in 1967 separating Israel from the Occupied Territories.