Either by accident or design, while events in southern Lebanon were grabbing the headlines all over the world everyone seemed to forget the plight facing the Palestinians in Gaza. In the same period over 200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed by Israeli soldiers and now the infrastructure in the strip is simply falling to bits. Yesterday was the first day of the new school year in Gaza yet classrooms remain empty as 37,000 teachers have gone on strike to join other unpaid government workers.

As for food, forget it. There’s about a month’s supply left for over a million people, the grain silos are empty and there’s no more fish to be had because the Israelis have banned local fishermen from plying their trade. No wonder that Arnold Vercken, the UN’s World Food Programme director for Gaza and the West Bank announced last week that the situation facing the people in the Palestinian Territories is one of hopelessness and despair. Even if sufficient money is raised to send in aid supplies - so far $114 million has been pledged - no one really knows if the Israelis will open the border checkpoints. It’s as bad as it gets.

Now there are good reasons for the Israelis taking such a hard line. They have no intention of dealing with Hamas whose politicians did so well at the elections earlier this year. Under the plan dreamed up by Ariel Sharon they want to isolate the Palestinian Territories by putting a ring of steel around them to make life more difficult for the suicide bombers and others who want to attack Israel. But the problem is that Hamas is both a political grouping which won votes at the polls and a terrorist organisation whose gunmen regularly attack Israeli targets.

Their emergence at the elections also upset the Americans and the Europeans who have withdrawn their financial aid making things much worse than they ever were before the Palestinians decided that they wanted a regime change through the ballot box. It seems democracy is okay when you get your own kind of people into power but not so great when the electorate uses the political process to bring to power a party which is not exactly Washington’s and London’s cup of tea. In fact, throughout the current crisis Hamas leaders have shown considerable restraint and have co-operated to try to ease the situation, but that won’t last for ever.

What worries everyone is that the current crisis will lead to what might be called the Hizbollah-isation of the Palestinian Territories. We have already seen how its political faction made inroads into Lebanese politics giving Hizbollah a standing which might it might otherwise have struggled to attain. It is also a powerful social force which provides alternative services for its supporters and as we have seen its militia is a sophisticated and tough fighting force. If Hizbollah were to move into Gaza it would be a nightmare for the Israelis. Do they really want to see fighters moving into Gaza able to mount raids and fire their rockets at will into their homeland?

Because that’s what will happen unless Gaza is saved from collapse. When people get desperate, as the Palestinians clearly are just now, they tend to take reckless steps, figuring that things might be bad but without doing anything life will simply get worse. They also saw how Hizbollah fighters stopped the Israeli forces in their tracks and they will fancy their chances in another round of fighting which could leave Israel being attacked on two fronts. No one wants that; it’s in no one’s interests.