Goodbye to Gaza...
Hello to Israel...
After a week inside Gaza, Charles Levinson of The Daily Telegraph in London (and ConflictBlotter) and I decided to make a run for the border.
While some felt our biggest danger came from the Hamas takeover, we thought our biggest threat came from kidnappers. When it looked like Hamas might force the group holding BBC correspondent Alan Johnston to free him, we felt the risk might be minimal.
When the group holding Alan defied the Hamas threat and threatened to kill him if its demands weren't met, we knew it was time to leave for a bit.
Our State Department had warned all U.S. journalists not to even go into Gaza and urged those of us who were there to get out. We had heard ominous warnings from credible sources that "the rules of the game had changed" in Gaza and that we should be prepared for the worst.
A top security officer warned me that the group holding Alan would be looking for another easy catch to shore up its political chits for a showdown with Hamas.
We had been working with the Israeli border officials and coordinating with U.S. State Department aides who all assured us that we could get out of Gaza whenever we wanted. But urged us to "do so soon."
We had things lined up and were heading to the border when the State Department anxiously called to relay a message from the Israeli side that there was shooting at the border and we shouldn't cross.
We waited an hour for things to calm down, then drove back to the border. There we sat in the warming early summer sun and watched the scavengers methodically dismantle the border crossing while nearby Israeli tanks kept watch.
It turned out that a Red Cross jeep was heading into Erez to pick up a small load of medical supplies for the supply-starved Gaza hospitals. The Israelis worked it out so that we could jump in the Red Cross jeep and drive to the Israeli side.
Normally, we would have walked out: Only diplomats, aid workers and the UN are usually allowed to drive through the border crossing.
I had only driven out of Gaza one other time: When I rode out in September, 2005 with British diplomats the night I and my British colleague Adam Pletts were freed after our own eight hour kidnapping.
But the pedestrian route remained tense. And, hours after we crossed, Israeli soldiers traded gunfire with Palestinian gunmen, killing at least one. The Israeli military said Hamas gunmen opened fire in the narrow crossing - a charge Hamas denied.
Even with the clash, the Israeli military announced tonight that it was reopening Erez after nearly a week so other journalists could get into Gaza to see for themselves what has happened.
With Hamas still trying to figure out what to do next, a potential humanitarian crisis on the horizon, and Alan Johnston's fate hanging in the balance, it's likely we'll be going back in sooner rather than later...
Dion - I just found your blog - makes interesting reading. Hope you're safe, and maybe see you in J some time. Leila
Posted by: Leila | June 19, 2007 at 12:07 AM
Dion - I just found your blog - makes interesting reading. Hope you're safe, and maybe see you in J some time. Leila
Posted by: Leila | June 19, 2007 at 12:07 AM
holy canoli
Posted by: lirun | July 16, 2007 at 08:34 AM