Arab neighborhoods in the cities seem more crowded. The Palestinians whose families fled to the West Bank and Gaza after 1948 live in crowded, gloomy cities that are crumbling from a lack of resources and cohesive leadership. Nevertheless, it is from the West Bank and Gaza that Palestinians hope to establish their own homeland. Gaza and the West Bank have been occupied by Israel since 1967, although Israel has returned much of the Gaza Strip and seven West Bank towns to Palestinian self-rule since 1993, when the two sides signed interim peace accords in Oslo. Further withdrawals have been discussed, but peace talks are near collapse.
Poverty is epidemic in the Palestinian communities.
But many Palestinians who commute to Israel to work can't be certain on any given day that they will be able to show up tomorrow. Israel, reacting to terrorist acts or rock-throwing protesters, closes the borders frequently, keeping thousands from work and causing layoffs. Because they live in an arid area, the Palestinians depend on Israel for almost everything, including food and medical supplies. When the roads are blocked, the necessities of life don't get in, either. The younger generation of Palestinians has been called traumatized, children who know more about rocks, guns, bombs and barbed wire than schoolbooks.