Gaza's blocked arteries

It has - or used to have - a fine two-lane highway called Salah al-Din (Saladin) Street which could whisk you from top to bottom in less than an hour.

Now, with Israel's security regime tightened because of the intifada, Palestinian traffic must zigzag through the territory to avoid Israeli-created obstacles and barriers.

Most inconvenient of all is the total closure, which the Israeli army can impose by cutting the tortuous route at two particular spots, cutting the north, centre and south of Gaza off from each other.

Many Palestinians hope Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan for Gaza will mean an end to this hardship when the settlers and troops who protect them are pulled out.

Round trip

My journey starts by hailing a taxi from the Gaza City beachfront and requesting a round trip to Khan Younis, the main town in the southern Gaza Strip, about 20km (12.5 miles) away.

A wary look passes across the face of the driver, whose name is Ahmed, but he agrees to take me. I tell him I have three hours, and the wariness turns to outright scepticism.

All right then, I say - if we have to turn round, so be it. But in actual fact, since there is no commuter traffic, no university students, and very little freight, three hours was just about right.

Normally traffic south from Gaza would take Salah al-Din Street, but it is blocked after about 2km (1.2 miles) near the Netzarim settlement. That is where the young Palestinian boy Muhammad al-Durrah was captured being shot dead in TV footage at the beginning of the intifada in 2000.

Now the route out south follows the coastline. The last district you pass at the southern end of Gaza City is Tel al-Hawa, where Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin lived and was killed by an Israeli rocket strike earlier this year.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4021095.stm