One of the most densely populated places on earth, the Gaza Strip is home to over a million Palestinians - and is a virtual prison. Just 43 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide, most of its residents are refugees who've lived in camps since 1948. Since the Palestinian uprising - the second Intifada - began in September 2000, none of Gaza's 40,000 day labourers have been able to cross the border to Israel. The checkpoint is also closed to all goods and medical supplies coming in from Israel and the West Bank. Local Gazans bear the brunt of Israel's determination to quash the uprising. Some 135 Palestinian children under the age of 15 have been killed by Israel's soldiers - for throwing stones at checkpoints near Israeli settlements. In this episode, Life visits Reyidh and Sabah and their children - just one refugee family trying to cope.

Normally, some 30,000 Palestinians would file through Erez checkpoint early every morning to work in Israeli industries, their income a lifeline for the refugees. But since the start of the Intifada, Israel's shut its gates to all these workers, and most are now unemployed. Reyidh hasn't been able to work for nine months, and is now US$3,000 in debt to feed and house his seven children. Already poor, the family has reached breaking point, with Sabah wondering how long life can go on with no solution in sight.

Sabah and Ramadan

Reyidh's son-in-law, Ramadan, used to work as a plasterer in Gaza but now he's lost his job too. His frustration is dangerous. He says: "Well everybody else is going to explode if we have to sit at home like old women."

UNRWA, the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees, is trying to create jobs, but it can only generate employment for 3,000 - a fraction of those out of work. They have 25,000 applicants on their database, and another 10,000 names waiting to be added. A man in the queue says: "What can we do? This is our situation, all the world is watching and turning a blind eye."

Sabah thinks the blockade just makes everything worse: "We're worrying day and night: when will there be a good solution and when will the roads be open for us? As long as there is a blockade like this even the young people who don't think about joining the protests will be encouraged to go. This pressure results in bad things and more pressure will cause an explosion." Sabah's mother Thoraya hates the violence: "Shame on them to take our land and shoot us! With tanks! We have no tanks, no guns, we have no weapons - just pieces of stone. What's a stone?"

Boys in hospital

Riad, a staff nurse in the Al-Awda Hospital near the checkpoint, looks after boys wounded in confrontations with the Israelis. Today, 15 boys have been admitted with gunshot wounds. Israeli journalist Amira Hass speaks out against this situation: "It has become completely unquestionable that the army has a right to shoot children who throw stones, and those stones don't even tickle the blocks which make these military posts."

Raji Sourani, a human rights lawyer, asks why the United Nations shies away from its responsibilities and fails to criticise Israel's aggression and the denial of the Palestinians' rights - rights laid down in UN resolutions, but ignored by Israel, and it seems, by the rest of the international community. "I won't imagine any sort of peace can be concluded except Israel as a state, as a people, as collective conscience said, 'Fine, we committed something wrong. We victimised Palestinians. We made them refugees. These people were suffering for the last 53 years and it's about time to find a solution.'"

Oded Eran, Israeli Camp David negotiator, says that Israel simply does not have room for 4 million Palestinians. "While we feel compassion for all these refugees we think that there should be a solution which will give satisfaction to the Palestinian refugees but at the same time will maintain the survival of the State of Israel."

But Haider Abdel Shafi, Palestinian chief negotiator to Madrid, 1991, says that international law is on the Palestinians' side: "When Israel applied to be a member of the UN it was accepted on the basis that it will respect Resolution 194 (which states that 'Refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date...'). But it did not." The refugees' right of return is further reinforced by international treaties: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 4th Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Roadblock

Gazans have to face all kinds of inconvenience - some caused by the fact that there are Israeli settlements within the Gaza Strip. They're all heavily guarded by the Israeli Defence Force and occupy nearly half this small sliver of land. They have their own access roads to Israel but these also cross the main arteries that link the Palestinian cities. The army closes the main roads whenever settler vehicles are passing. They also frequently close them for no apparent reason, cutting Gaza into three strips.

Israel's control isn't just limited to the land. Gaza's 45-kilometre Mediterranean coastline once provided a basic living for many Palestinian families, especially refugees. But now Israeli forces prevent Palestinian fishing boats from going any distance out to sea. Fisherman Sufian Baker says: "The fishing is very poor - we don't even get enough to feed ourselves or pay for the fuel. All night just seven boxes and not even good fish. The area is under siege. We can't get to the good fishing grounds. We're only allowed to go one and a half kilometres out to sea which is nothing and there's a thousand fishermen - how can there be any fish left?"

The Israelis say they cannot accept a solution which will lead to the end of the predominantly Jewish state of Israel. The Palestinians say it is racist to build a state "conditioned on religion". And so the arguments go on.

Like many Palestinians, Sabah wants peace: "The most important thing is we want a peaceful solution - why? To allow us to go back to our land and there will be peace between us - this is the most important thing... We don't want to this trouble every day: start the Intifada, stop the Intifada, and stop it again - this is not a solution. We want to live as well, we want to plan our lives. Should our kids stay like this forever? We want to be able to bring up our kids up and live in peace."

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