Another early start, trying to beat the traffic and the heat to get to the Gaza crossings to assess the situation of Gaza's link with the outside world. It is becoming a familiar route, today I am being driven. The driver tells me on the way of fears in Ramallah of Gaza style extremism appearing there.

At Erez, the main passenger terminal for Gaza of Israel's occupation transit company, there is no activity at all. Four men lounge in the shade of a canopy in the car park and tell me they are not taxi drivers but family men waiting to take sick relatives to hospitals in Tel Aviv. If they ever emerge from the swish security processing shed.

One figure does emerge, a fellow aid worker, based with his family in Gaza, he tells me how he was caught in the crush a week before and abandoned his attempt to leave. Today he was the only one in the terminal with no one in the Palestinian side and lots of attention on the Israeli side. People are worried he says, they see no future, every family has had someone killed, wounded or shot in the leg. A million and a half traumatised people depending on people on the outside to help them.

I talk on the phone to the Major in charge of civilian Liason for the Israeli Defence Force. What is the state of the crossings today? I ask. He is in a hurry but has enough time to tell me that Kerem Shalom, Israel's favoured entry point is still closed following yesterday's mortar attack. So with Erez operating at an absolute minimum, the main commercial crossing at Karni sealed by Israel and now Kerem Shalom neutralised by Palestinian violence from within Gaza one and a half million stoic Palestinians have just one lifeline, one way in for the food and animal fodder, critical equipment for the failing water system and any of the other 10,000 items they will eventually need.

So we are off, wheels spinning on route 232 all the way along the inland south east 'coast' of Gaza. Sufa is sign posted as a turn to the right, soon we are passing trucks and trailers laden with massive straw bales, animal fodder for Gaza's live stock. I count 20 trucks and 20 trailers and wonder how many days this will last.

	Trucks laden with animal feed wait at the Sufa crossing Credit: Michael Robin Bailey/Oxfam

Further along the road we start passing trucks laden with sacks of flour, beans, covered lorries full of food and refrigerated trucks with perishable goods like milk and eggs.

	Trucks try and enter Sufa Credit: Michael Robin Bailey/Oxfam

We drive past the queue of trucks for a kilometre before we reach the crossing control post. It is a basic affair, this command post for Gaza's only life line, sitting on the back of a pickup, under a beach umbrella two of the Major's lesser ranks share a clipboard and two rifles in the company of two civilians whose function does not become clear during my discussion with Soldier Kosta. Having called the Major for instruction, Kosta showed the best manners, humour and competence as he described how he and his team were managing Gaza's one and only life line.

	Crossing controlling Gaza's only lifeline Credit: Michael Robin Bailey/Oxfam

"The trucks and their contents are checked and approved on the previous day, they come here and are dealt with on a first come first served basis. We check the paper work and our list (on the clipboard) and then wave them on, one at a time to the unloading area over the hill behind us. There they are unloaded by a fork lift onto the ground. When seventy trucks have been unloaded we close the Israeli border and the Palestinians come in and load the food and other goods onto their trucks and drive them into Gaza."

"We leave the refrigerated trucks with perishable goods like fresh food and medicines until last so that their contents sit in the sun for the least time."

What is the daily capacity of this crossing point? I asked. "It's the time taken for the Palestinians to clear the unloading area before sunset. We can't ensure security after dark." What will happen when the days get shorter if this system goes on for months? I wonder. The life line will get shorter. Anyway the basic roads won't stand the pounding from all the trucks in wet weather so it will be a short, bogged down life line. Not a life line at all, but then it isn't much of a life in Gaza just now by all accounts.

Heading home, we stopped for a chat with some of the drivers sitting in the meagre shade of their behelmoths. Shlomo, Hanan, Abel and Suliman, four likely lads from Israel, two Jewish the others Arab, all here "not for the money but because people need food." according to Shlomo from Hadera. "If we don't get through today we will sleep in our cabs and be here tomorrow, no problem."

	Sholmo, Khanan, and Suliman wait for the crossing to open Credit: Michael Robin Bailey/Oxfam

So here is hope, Jews and Arabs working together to help Palestinians trapped by Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The little people helping the little people, someday maybe the big people will catch on.

With the closure of Karni (the main import and export crossing into Israel), the price of fish is low. Usually the price of fish is preposterously high for Gazan pockets. These days most people don't have jobs, or they earn very little. Only the fishermen families enjoy the catch with a lucky few who can still afford it. With border crossing open,fish is shipped to Israel via middlemen. But these days it is difficult for any cargo, human, or otherwise to leave Gaza. It is not simple to explain what it is like living in Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth, a narrow strip of land,

	Fish Oven in Beach Camp Gaza Credit: Oxfam

On Saturday my young daughter wanted to have a local type of fish that is prepared in public fish ovens, located on the sea side of the Beach Refugee Camp. I paid 100 NIS for three medium size fish! Bear in mind that a Palestinian Authority employee with a family an average family of 7 to 12 people received around 1.000 to 1.500 NIS a month. Many Gazans working for the PA have not received full salaries since the beginning of the international aid boycott going back to March 2006. Palestinian Authority employees have received an allowance every few months to keep them going. Others, who are lucky to be employed, earn around 200 USD per month.

Around 9 a.m. under a beautiful sun and blue sky I walked a short ten minute walk to have a cup of tea with a well known and loved lady who has been living herein Gaza for the past 23 years with her Palestinian husband. She has a well-known beauty centre and since she is warm and welcoming, I thought that it was the perfect stop for a cup of tea before continuing to the Friday vegetable market.

I sat down with her at the reception sharing a steaming cup of tea when I heard lots of noises from inside the shop. I wondered out loud "Is there a party inside?" she, answered, "Yes, this is our first wedding preparation since the events of last week!"

An essential ritual, weddings in Gaza are traditionally never ending occasions. Even during the most difficult times of the intifada (Palestinian uprising the first one started in 1987 and the most recent one since2000) and under Israeli incursions, wedding parades continued to take place: the bride in the car with flowers and bows, followed by their guests beeping their car horns, and sometimes a van ahead of them all, with a camera man filming the joyous occasion. In the background a live orchestra plays welcoming the bride and groom to a house or wedding hall, to celebrate the happy occasion.

I chatted a bit longer than I had planned to and then realised that I had to leave fast if I was to make it to the fresh vegetable market before it became hot.

The Karni border crossing being the only outlet for produce into Israel dictates the price of vegetables and food in the Gaza Strip. When it's closed, the market is flooded with local produce and the consumer capacity is very low. Market sellers are forced to sell their vegetables at very low prices or the produce is left to rot.

To make things worse, the local price charged cannot even cover the production costs of agricultural producers who will find themselves (if the situation continues) unable to replant their fields for the next season.

The main vegetable market Suq e Fras is near the Municipal building in the centre of Gaza city. Fresh greens are offered there at cheap prices, especially because of the closure of border crossing. Vegetables fluctuate in prices and I have experienced the price of tomatoes going from half a shekel a kilo to 5 or 6 in a period of weeks depending on border crossing closures. (The British pound makes 8 to the Israeli Shequel, one of the currencies used in Gaza together with the Jordanian dinar and the American dollar). The sight of the fresh dew filled rocket, parsley anjarada and mulukyia warmed my heart. It is silly how fresh greens make you temporarily feel like life is back to 'normal' well as 'normal' as it can be in Gaza.

Talking to the vegetable sellers brought me back to the reality of the present anxiety almost every Gazan is feeling. Great uncertainty is the norm. Nobody seems happy, frowns and furrowed brows among the faces in the crowd, but when you manage eye contact they cannot but offer their welcoming smile.

The general situation here looks very bleak. Food aid will last for a maximum of two weeks according to aid agencies, the small amounts of food that are allowed in through the Kerem Shalom crossing controlled totally by Israel will not be enough for the population if significant supplies of food are not allowed in through the main Karni crossing. Materials for maintenance-spare parts- and cement, necessary for the completion of sewage projects are urgently needed too.

Yesterday, I attended an emergency coordination meeting with local organisations. Their main requests to international organisations were: to continue funding small income generating projects at the individual household level, to try to provide assistance to the local agricultural producers so they may continue producing and selling at low prices and that these organisations should advocate for the immediate opening of borders crossings for food aid, materials and trade.

Sunday morning, church for Christians, I'm on my way to the Old City weaving through the traffic on the green line road that literally cuts Jerusalem in two. Just by crossing the road you move between Israeli West Jerusalem and Arab East Jerusalem. If only the rest of this situation were as simple and benign.

I'm thinking of the various reports I read over breakfast, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights highlights the dangers of the Palestinian Director General of the Police suspending the work of the police force in Gaza leaving the population caged in the strip with no policing for anything from traffic control to catching murderers or imprisoning convicted criminals. Added to this the legal system has been brought to a halt with the danger that alternative courts could be set up. Next to this was the report of a public opinion survey carries out last week in West Bank and Gaza. The majority of the 1270 people questioned believed that Hamas and Fatah were equally to blame for the infighting and that both sides were equally losers.

What the ordinary people want above all is a stop to the infighting and criminality.

An emergency stop because someone just swerved in front of me. Here in Jerusalem criminality seems mostly confined to bad driving and pick-pocketing tourists, lucky us. So then, the people of Gaza and the West Bank, all four million of them have been ignored twice it seems. First when they voted in a democratic election and the international community and Israel did not like the results any more than the losing party did and now when the same cast of international and local actors are imposing their will which does not seem to be the same as the people's in the street. The people of Palestine must be getting used to this.

Getting used to things, becoming numb to injustice, tolerant of suffering is a theme which comes up in my church service. In a hymn we sing 'Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore'. Hasn't the international community given in weakly to the evils of occupation and attacks on civilians in Israel and Palestine. Don't we just accept the closures of crossings people use to get to their fields and schools and hospitals? We grumble a bit but then we are resigned to these evils. And now the blockade of one and a half million people, we grumble a bit more loudly but we hardly move out of our chairs to do anything about it.

After church my mobile rings, its our water engineer in Gaza calling to say that he cannot inspect the sewage lake holding back one and a half million cubic metres of sewage and toxic waste from flooding 10,000 people because there are Israeli tanks in the immediate vicinity and so its not safe to go there (it wasn't safe anyway but adding the danger of being shot or blown up to the danger of being drowned in faeces is just too much danger). He tells me about the sewage lake and the emergency project to partially drain it which was started four months ago when a smaller lake burst its banks and killed three women and two children and made some people homeless.

The necessary pipes have been partly laid, the pumps have been purchased (and have sat for three months in Israel at the Karni crossing waiting for Israeli permission to be transferred into Gaza) and the contractors have been working (until security concerns and lack of permission to enter Gaza prevented them working). There are now less than three weeks left for the work to be completed before the ever rising level of sewage and toxic waste reaches the limit of the retaining wall's capacity to hold it back.

Now here is something to get off your backside for, and in Jerusalem and in Oxford Oxfam staff are doing just that, in the office at the weekend, working frantically against the clock developing emergency project plans with partners and to get press statements and articles out and to lobby the world leaders meeting on Monday beside the sea in Egypt and the top officials of the quartet meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Whether it is lobbying about people drowning in faeces or facing food, water and power running out as a result of the stranglehold being applied to all the people of Gaza it is what we are here for. Let us hope, let us pray, that we are heard before its too late and we spend our next weekend or the one after that clearing up the mess and burying the dead.

> Read Michael's blog on the Al Jazeera website

I got up at the usual early hour as the sun comes in through the windows in Beit Hanina before six this time of year and the local cockerels have been crowing for a couple of hours to keep up with the Imams' first calls to prayer.

Breakfast on the balcony of my apartment is dominated with thoughts of whether Alan Johnstone has been released overnight. A quick scan of the local news websites of Ha'aretz and Jerusalem Post gives no comfort. Nothing on Alan and still some 250 people trapped in the terminal at Erez, trying to leave Gaza but unable to get out because the Israeli forces say they have no one to co-ordinate with.

	Road to nowhere? Credit: Michael Robin Bailey

Off I go to the Oxfam GB office to get a car to visit the crossings at Erez and Karni to see first hand what is the situation. We need this information to consider alongside the reports we have from my workmates in Gaza when deciding what we need to do.

I'm preoccupied with thoughts of those people in the concrete tunnel in Erez, stuck between fear of returning to possible reprisals in Gaza and the implacable refusal of the Israeli machine to simply process them and let them on their way. The previous night there had been shooting and a grenade blast in the tunnel, someone had died and others had been injured. What an end to a day of waiting in the dusty heat with no food or water or toilets, children, adults, old people, sick people all waiting together, hostages to a bigger political drama that seems to forget the suffering of ordinary people.

An all but deserted Erez terminal on the Israeli side Credit: Michael Robin Bailey

I call the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Liason Officer, an avuncular Englishman, a Major. He is in a meeting he tells me, he does not know when he will be out. Everyone is in the same situation it seems. I call his deputy, he too is too busy to talk, call back in fifty minutes he says. I get directions from one of the taxi drivers and head off to Karni to see what is happening at the commercial terminal, Gaza's main artery.

Twenty minutes later, just next to the IDF parking lot for tanks and armored personnel carriers, a simple barrier and three young soldiers block the way. Nothing dramatic but still very final. Its closed, they say, there is no one to co-ordinate with on the other side, nothing can pass through, sorry. So instead of the 150 trucks a day that should be passing this thin hot road there are none. Instead of the food and medical supplies, electrical generators and vital spare parts for hospitals and the water utility there is nothing and there is no immediate prospect of any change.

I return to Erez, my own fuel and spirits running low. There are more reporters now and its hotter. The single Arab family who had been waiting for relatives give up and drive off, their youngest child sucking a bottle in the back. I get the IDF liason officer on the phone, he is too busy to see me but explains that their hands are tied, there is no one to talk to, no one on the other side to co-ordinate with. They did let emergency medical supplies in through Erez yesterday with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC). They are using two small crossings points far down in the south, Karem Shalom and Sifa where internationals are doing the co-ordination with them. These can be used for emergencies. I don't ask what constitutes an emergency above 250 people trapped for two days without food or water or toilets in a concrete tunnel and one and a half million people trapped for six years without hope. I don't think we share the same world view.

In this farce scripted by Lewis Carrol, Monty Python and the Devil himself part of the reason for there being no one to coordinate with on the Palestinian side appears to be that the Palestinian border officials have been told by Mahmood Abass' 'government' that they will only be paid if they do not turn up for work.

Nothing more for me to do at this dead end, this impossible, impassable impasse, I turn for Jerusalem. Watching the fuel gauge all the way back. I talk to my colleagues in Gaza, they update me on the people trapped in the tunnel, they have been getting some water and food, some basic medical help. I hear that the Municipal Coastal Water Utility has been forced to use standby pumps continuously because the week's violence has damaged much of their first line equipment. This is not good, the fuel use is greater and there is no money for the extra cost and the 24 hours a day operation wears the pumps out quickly and they are low on spare parts. I hear that the utility has a large consignment of pumps, generators and spare parts waiting to be brought in through the Karni crossing but of course its closed. I ask for a list so that we can start the coordination negotiation with the IDF liason officers at Erez. The ones who promised all the help they could give if we had a specific request.

I was just about to leave the office to do something related to my usual job when the phone rang. Al Jazeera, would I come to talk live about the situation in Gaza? Three hours later a television camera and I share a small dark cubicle. Behind me a picture of West Jerusalem, neat white boxes and terracotta roofs. In front a television screen showing the news programme I'm to be interviewd on and the camera lens. In my ear an interpreter is relaying the story that I am going to be commenting on. People being interviewed in Gaza today, asked to respond to reports that the Israeli government has said they will impose a total food blockade on Gaza, only allowing basic items to be supplied by the humanitarian agencies. One and a half million people under siege. The images on the screen of ordinary people in Gaza, some angry and defiant and some fearful and confused is replaced by the Al Jazeera news anchor.

It's my turn. What are you, Oxfam going to do? Our priority is humanitarian access, getting essential supplies into Gaza, supplies of food, fuel, medicines, pumps and spare parts to keep the water flowing. After that it is making sure everyone understands that the people of Palestine all have to be treated the same according to their needs. Do you work with the Israeli forces? Yes, we negotiate humanitarian access with the IDF liason officers, we have to. One and a half million people need a lot of humanitarian supplies every day, not just one special consignment of 12 trucks as happened at Karem Shalom earlier this afternoon but real high volume access day by day by day. Thank you the voice in my ear says, we are out of time. So will the 250 people in the tunnel be, so will the one and a half million be. Out of time, very soon.

Postscript: The people stuck at Erez were eventually taken by bus to the Karem Shalom crossing point into Israel and then to the crossing point into Egypt. Some of the people opted in the end to stay in Gaza and about half of those who went into Egypt were reported to have returned to Gaza. I guess the three busses outside Erez went back empty to Ramallah. It seems that Gaza to Ramallah is not a journey the government of Israel wants under any circumstances, which is a shame if you live in Gaza but have family in the West Bank but that's a story for another day, well thousands of stories, all sad, many tragic.

The people of Gaza are concerned about what the future holds for them, anxious as to what will happen next - I am one of these people.

I have three children growing up in this unstable environment, they are 1, 5 and 12 years old. As a father, I worry about their future; I worry about what world they will grow up in and how they will be affected by the current crisis. Recently, I decided to keep them away from the television and brought them games instead to distract them. I do not want them to see the violence, the bloodshed and the tragic situation before them on the television.

It is sad, it is the summer holidays and I fear for them to go out, I have not even used my car for one and a half months through worry of something happening to us. There is a lovely beach nearby but I cannot take my children there to play on with the sand and swim in the sea through fear of their security - it is not safe. It was only the other day I went to the office and found that the air conditioning did not work. The machine was broken. I went out with a colleague to look at what had happened and I found that the machine was broken because of two bullets being lodged into it.

Everything in my life has been impacted by this situation, everything.

One year ago I moved home, from Northern Gaza to central Gaza because rockets were coming over my house, I feared for the safety of my family. I had to move back recently, as I was frightened that Israeli air strikes would affect us. This is an unstable life to live I do not know where me and my family can hide to get away from it all.

On some days, when you go to the shop, to buy milk products for your child so that they can grow healthily, you cannot buy them. Some stocks do not even exist any more in local shops - what are people to do? People are worried about their daily consumption and are starting to ration their food. There is the constant thought that maybe tomorrow we will find nothing in the shops.

Now that the clashes have ended, the streets are quiet, aside from people rushing to supermarkets to bulk buy - well, that is those who are able to. Maybe tomorrow we will find nothing in the shops. Already the shelves are 60% empty in my local shops but at least there is still some food. How long will this last?

My colleague called me the other day, worried, he said "We have to go to the shops to buy food, we do not know what direction this situation will go in, we need to make sure that we have food." I am lucky because I have a regular salary from Oxfam, although I share it with my entire family - it is more than a lot of people have here. It has enabled me to stock up on food and water so that we will be able to live if the blockade continues.

One of my main concerns is about the health situation. There is a shortage of medicine in hospitals, the reality is, if these people do not get the treatment that they need - they will die, it is as simple as that.

I am a water engineer for Oxfam, fortunately, there have not been any significant damages to our water and sanitation systems. However, there remain many problems to address which is stopping people from having their water and sanitation needs met, their basic rights.

Because Gaza is closed off, there is a lack of fuel flowing. We need fuel for generators to function, generators which enable water pumps to work and the sewage systems. We also need spare parts for our water and sanitation systems.

	The road to Karni commercial crossing , up to 150 trucks should be passing every day. Now it is blocked and guarded by Israeli soldiers. Credit: Michael Robin Bailey

In one village, in the north of Gaza there was a sewage flood 2 months ago. We devised a solution to ensure that this would not happen again. We need to build a sewage plant. Two months have now gone past and the materials that we need are still stuck at the Karni crossing. Without these materials, it is most probable that the sewage flood will happen again. If it does 300,000 people will be affected.

For treating water, we need chlorine. As the crossings are closed we are not receiving this either. We only have 2 weeks of chlorine left - what will happen then? I know the answer to this; people will become sick and will have to drink contaminated water. If sewage and water is not treated, contamination becomes inevitable especially if you consider that it is one of the most densely populated places on earth.

The World Health Organisation has stated that for survival, around 150 litres of water are needed per day, per person. At the moment people are receiving about 60-70 litres per day, during clashes that was reduced to 50 litres. It is the summer. Without the water they need people are getting ill and those who are already sick are being made weaker.

30% of the Gazan population depend on agricultural wells as a source of drinking water. These people do not have enough money to buy fuel to operate their wells. The only other option these people will have would be to buy water - but with what money? The average Gazan gets paid around $100 - $145 per month and that is if they do get paid. To meet a families needs in terms of water, it would cost them around $50 per month. People have not even been able to pay their water bills so it is unlikely that a lot of people would be able to pay for bottled or tankered water.

People are confused, they believe that humanitarian organisations will help them with the current situation but how can they, almost nothing can get in and out of Gaza.

For the future, I hope that all people across the world will live in peace.

Today, the situation in Gaza is relatively calm; the streets are quiet and there have been no clashes. However, from speaking to people I get the sense that this is not going to last a long time. People are worried about their future they do not know what it will bring. I have heard so many people say that "there is not future for us, what is our future, what can it be?"

We are locked in Gaza, people cannot move, even those who need to travel to Israel to get medical assistance are not allowed in. I have heard of people in urgent need of chemotherapy and other life-saving treatment denied access to hospitals in Israel. The hospitals here cannot treat them - there is lack of equipment and medicine. What can these people do?

Only yesterday two people were shot dead by Israeli soldiers when they were trying to cross the check point that separates Gaza from Israel and the rest of the world to see their families. I have heard that Israeli bulldozers are clearing areas near check points to set up camps for those waiting to be able to cross the border to see their families, friends or to get medical treatment - why not let them leave?

Water in Gaza city is a big problem. Many of the water pumps are powered by electricity which is sporadic at the moment. Some people I know have not had any electricity for days.

People that I have spoken to are fearing that the Israeli government will cut off electricity in some areas as it will mean that they do not have access water. Because I have a job and a regular income I have been fortunate enough to buy some water so that my family can drink wash and cook but not everyone is in the same position as me. Those without money go without water. After three days without water, people can die.

Food is slowly running out as all food comes from outside of Gaza city. Markets are empty and some people do not have the funds to buy the little food that is available as all trade has stopped due to the borders being closed. People are worried that they will not be able to feed their families. Some families are now only eating one meal a day as they are saving the little that they have in case no food comes through.

I would like the international community to understand the situation that one and a half million people are facing. We have become like fish on a beach without the essentials to keep us alive, we feel like we are slowly dying.

I work for Oxfam, over the past week we have been unable to work as we normally do but the communities that we work with have been contacting my Oxfam colleagues concerned about what will happen next. There are no International non-governmental organisations able to work fully in Gaza many, have been denied access. How can we continue to live like this? We have nothing. We need help so that people's lives can be saved. My hope is that we will all be able to live in peace with access to our basic human rights.

The violence has stopped for now and no shooting can be heard, well, almost no shooting. Various funeral stands with mourners are on the streets. There is a lot of pain left behind and confusion about the killings and about the future.

As Oxfam's programme officer in Gaza, I have been receiving many phone calls over the last few days. The phone calls give me an idea of how people around me are feeling; on the one hand there is relief that the violence has stopped and on the other hand anxiety about the reaction of Israel and the International Community to the events of the last few days. Why this worry? Because life in Gaza depends on the opening and closing of crossings between Gaza and Israel. To enter or exit Gaza you need permission, without it you cannot move. I see the crossings as "valves"; these "valves" control access of fuel, food and medical supplies as well as the trickle of people travelling in and out of the Gaza Strip.

Gaza is a strip of land of 365 km2 inhabited by more than a million people with no way out: air, sea and land - all parameters controlled by the State of Israel. It is hard to understand how so many people have managed to exist for so many years with no possibilities of working (you need a permit to work in Israel), living mainly on food aid - it's an intense and difficult environment to live in.

It is important to clarify that the situation did not start to go wrong a week ago, it has been "going wrong" since 2000 with the increasing Israeli closure of the Palestinian borders (both in Gaza and the West Bank). This situation has been worsened by the international boycott that closed off economic support to the Palestinian Authority.

Over the last few years workers permits into Israel have been revoked by the thousands. In addition to this, a hundred thousand Palestinian Authority employees have lost their regular income. With many development projects being closed down people are being pushed further into poverty.

Finally the European Community had found a way to provide, through the Temporary International Mechanism, fuel to institutions (power plants and hospitals among them) and allowances to Palestinian Authority employees to keep things going but they were not supporting the idea of a unity government that could provide an element of stability in a very stormy sea.

Now we hear of the new emergency government and the expected end of the boycott expressed by the United States of America. Salam Fayad the person who has been chosen by the President Abu Mazen to head it is widely respected in the West. Nevertheless I hear the people of Gaza questioning: how will that affect us here in Gaza, what will the repercussions of this will be for us?

I have now arrived at Al shifa Hospital, to meet its director Dr. Hasan Abu Tawela, a well known cardiologist, called from retirement 7 months ago to deal with the many problems the hospital has to face.

While entering into Dr Hasan Abu Tawela's office I see a man also in a white coat showing a slight injury on his neck: "A few millimetres saved me", he said, "the bullet just glided past my neck damaging only the surface of my skin!"

I hear that security for hospital staff has been among one of the many problems doctors have dealt with. How to get staff from home and back and how to protect the patients while in the hospital? At least that part is over now, at least for the moment.

"We are all anxious" Dr. Tawela, stated. "It is like we are holding our breath waiting for something to happen. Meanwhile we are running out of the most essential items like syringes, sutures, gloves, medicines... today, if we had to deal with a traffic accident that involved a few people, the supplies we have left would not even last an hour. We are doing first aid work, small sutures here and there, changes of bandages and things like that. We cannot do any more."

Dr Tawela continues, "I do not want to bore you with these stories, but one of the most tragic situations is the amount operations we have had to conduct with insufficient equipment available. There is a line of vascular patients waiting to be moved either to Egyptian or Israeli hospitals for treatment. We have 15 patients from Al Shifa alone and nothing has been done about them yet.

Because it is Sunday international organisations, except the United Nations in Gaza seem to be closed. The hospital received a visit from an international organisation yesterday to find out about the situation but Dr. Tawela in not very hopeful about the arrival of supplies.

"We hear" he tells me "that the United States will lift the boycott for the emergency government in Palestine, but how this will affect us here in Gaza is not clear. Are we not also Palestinian? Parts of our families are in Jerusalem or in the West Bank; both sides form a unit in relation to families and traditions. How can people ignore this?"

A visit to the bank (closed all week and thus interminable lines of people queuing) and a coffee at the Beach Camp (a refugee camp in the northern part of the city of Gaza) at the United Nations Women's Centre will end my outing.

After days of being in their houses, the women crowd the place and sit down speaking to one another. Hyat the social worker whom I know of long comments "even if food aid keeps coming and there is power and water, what do we do after with our lives? Is life only about sustenance? What about dreams, work, a future? How can we keep our dignity among the daily waiting for food parcels?"

The head of the centre, Sabah Taleb, a dynamic and hopeful woman, serves us bitter coffee saying: "We are all in mourning; nevertheless we have to try to be positive about the future."

I am working with my colleagues across Oxfam to identify the humanitarian needs of people living in Gaza.

At one end, you have Chinese officials who know what they want and how to get there. They have a very good knowledge of Africa. For instance, the Chinese minister speaks five African languages, more than many Africans!!!

At the other end, you have African officials who are still unsure about what they want to get from China. They all say how important it is for Africa to have a new partner, but they do not stress enough the need for Africa to get the best out of this relationship. The partnership shouldn't be just about selling oil to China, while the Chinese textile products are destroying the young African industry. We should think about that.

There is life after the UN. Kofi Annan has a new passion: the green revolution. He is leading an Alliance for the Green revolution, which is supported by the Gates Foundation and the Rockfeller Foundation. The message that came out is simple, but powerful: Internet connections are fine, but the continent needs to feed its own people first.

By the way, I have not yet managed to talk to him because it feels at times like a rock concert. Each time, there is a break, people rush to see the "stars" and their massive entourages. I've never been good at being a groupie!

	Natasha with Mr Kidd - UK Department for International Development (DIFD) head of private Sector.

I also noticed that everybody knows Barbara. Each time I introduced myself as Oxfam, someone will say: " Say hello to Barbara and keep up with the good work". People feel that if the British Government has done so well in terms of its aid policy to Africa, it's because of the pressure from organisations like Oxfam.

As a consequence, business leaders are very welcoming and willing to engage with us. Some of them want to come to Africa, but they don't know the region. I have already invited some of them to come to West Africa and see for themselves.

Some nice projects we can work on in the near future? I hope so.

Business people and policymakers are on the same page: there are huge opportunities in Africa. If Governments are willing to engage, there is a possibility to make a big difference.

Listen to President Wade of Senegal who was in one of the panels: Africa is not sick. For instance, people in the west talk a lot about AIDS, but they ignore that the vast majority of people in West Africa do not have AIDS. President Wade was one of the stars yesterday because he was quite positive. The audience liked his speech and everybody was nodding when he spoke about the need for investment and infrastructure.

	Natasha with South African President Mbeki.

I came out of the panel on The New Social Philanthropists very confident in the future of the continent. Business people recognise the need to work with Governments and civil society - Oxfam for sure; our work on the G8 is still fresh in all minds- -to make a difference. New Social Philanthropists are everywhere looking for ideas and partners. That's exactly what we are doing now in West Africa.

You can't believe me but, I'm standing 20 meters from Kofi Annan, but it's hard to talk to him for more than 20 seconds. There are just too many people around him. He is still a big star. I have shaken many famous hands: Baroness Amos who talked about Nepad, Mo Ibrahim, one of Africa's most successful businessmen who is launching a new initiative on Governance. You shake many hands, but it's hard to engage in a deep discussion when there are so many people around.

I'll try my luck later and will report back. I hope to have more success on that front today.

My flight from Jo burg to Cape town arrived yesterday at 4pm. At the luggage carrousel, I received a phone call from Barbara Stocking. As you can imagine I was a bit surprised...but she was her usual sprightly self listing out some of the people I need to speak to and what angle to take. Finally, she added "make sure you say hello to Kofi Annan - Oxfam has been working very hard in support of his African Agriculture project.....make sure he acknowledges it!!"

I have looked at the program while waiting for my plane and some of the panels are terrific. One of them seems pretty cool: the bank in my pocket - banking the unbanked with the mobile phone. Can you imagine the difference this could make in West Africa? I'm looking forward to another one: The power of new ideas - social entrepreneurs transform Africa, which is dear to my heart because in West Africa, we are trying to link up wealthy investors and African businessmen.

	Natasha with Shahied Teladia, SABC News editor and producer following her interview on the 180 degrees morning programme.

I recognised the bus driver from last year....Can you imagine he actually recognised me ( I left something on the bus every day!). I shared the bus to the hotel with 2 South African Journalists from SABC - I told them I worked for Oxfam......I was asked do you know "Shenilla"?. Shenilla is CPM for South Africa .....Good thing I happen to know her.

I was later invited to by the SABC journalists to be a guest on their morning show....live! That's a very good start indeed.

I will be back after the opening ceremony.