Refugees from Gaza Face Uncertain Future in the West Bank

Essam Saed's mobile rings constantly as he sits quietly on his patio in Ramallah. Between puffs on his water pipe and sips of Palestinian beer, Saed fields phone calls in both Arabic and Hebrew. He sighs, exhales, and closes his phone.

"Forty more refugees are coming to Ramallah from Gaza. They have been shot in the fighting with Hamas, and are waiting in hospitals for permits from the Israelis," he says, taking another long drag.

It is not the first such phone call Saed has received.

Saed "who fled the strip earlier this year when his NGO offices were ransacked by Hamas" has personally taken up the task of tracking the Palestinians who escaped to the West Bank after a week of bloody street battles erupted in June.

Now, according to a spokesperson at Palestinian Authority (PA) headquarters in Ramallah, nearly 400 refugees from Gaza are warily taking up residence across the West Bank, the Palestinian territory that flanks the border with Jordan.

Unsure of how the US-sponsored Annapolis conference set for later this month will help determine their fate, the refugees from Gaza "still living under Israeli occupation" watch and wait.

Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fell to Hamas Islamists after clashes between the two factions escalated in June of this year. A unity government was announced in March, but failed to end the violence that had plagued the Gaza Strip since Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006.

Intensified fighting transformed the Gaza Strip into a civil battleground, leaving Hamas in control of the narrow coastal territory, Fatah in power in the West Bank, and the flight of up to 2,000 refugees.

Attempting to rebuild their lives in the West Bank, the region's newest wave of refugees faces economic challenges, an ill-defined legal status, and the constant reminder they are not yet citizens of a sovereign state.

"Life is very hard here, and I don't know what will happen tomorrow or the next day"to me or to my family. But we are Palestinian and cannot travel; where else can we go?" Saed asks.