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AZUN, West Bank -- Karim Edwan's skepticism about the U.S.-backed Middle East peace process is rooted in his morning commute. To travel from his home in this West Bank village to his job as an emergency room doctor, the 35-year-old must take at least two cabs, skirt a barbed-wire fence, climb a dirt mound, talk his way through multiple Israeli checkpoints and remove his shoes for a full-body security check. Before the obstacles were imposed, the trip to his hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus took 30 minutes. Now it takes two hours. "It's my daily humiliation," he said.

A report on Wednesday by eight British-based relief and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International U.K., says the humanitarian situation in Gaza is now the worst it has been since the Israeli occupation began in 1967. The report said 80 percent of Gaza’s 1.5 million people were dependent on food aid, compared with 63 percent in 2006. Unemployment is close to 40 percent, and 95 percent of Gaza’s industrial operations have been suspended because of a ban on the import of raw materials and on all exports, the report added.

The architecture of Annapolis established by Rice includes four key tracks, all of which are supposed to operate simultaneously: high-level talks on "final status" issues such as the division of Jerusalem; incremental changes in security, Jewish settlements on the West Bank and roadblocks hindering Palestinian movement; jump-starting the Palestinian economy; and greater Arab involvement. The final-status talks have been shrouded in secrecy, while little has happened on the other tracks, participants said. The number of roadblocks has increased, according to U.N. estimates.