The vaunted "Palestinian gunmen" displayed their diplomatic sophistication today:
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen bulldozed a barricade on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, disrupted traffic across the frontier and stormed government offices on Wednesday in growing unrest ahead of elections later this month.
The gunmen, renegade members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant group in President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, went on the rampage after police arrested a local leader on suspicion of involvement in the kidnapping of three Britons last week.
After commandeering a bulldozer to cheers from onlookers, gunmen smashed through concrete blocks lining the border near the Palestinian refugee camp of Yibna, witnesses said.
Palestinians swarmed through into no-man's land. Egyptian police fired twice in the air to ward off Palestinian youths who cut through a fence on the Egyptian side of the frontier. But scores of Palestinians reached Egyptian soil, witnesses said.
Egypt had no immediate comment on the incident. It was a further sign of chaos deepening in Gaza since Israel withdrew in September after 38 years of occupation, turning the territory into a restive testing ground for Palestinian statehood.
An Israeli official has reportedly told Egypt to control their border, or Israel will:
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Wednesday voiced his deep concern over recent developments along the Gaza border, warning Egypt that if the mayhem along the border does not stop, Israel will be forced to prevent movement between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Mofaz issued the warning several hours after gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commandeered two bulldozers and smashed through a section of the wall on the Gaza-Egypt border to protest the jailing of one of their leaders.
Meeting U.S., Egyptian and Palestinian officials, Mofaz requested the Egyptians halt the uncontrolled passage of Palestinians and weapons into the Strip through the Rafah crossing.
I understand the concern that a wide-open border between Gaza and Egypt would engender, but I am not sure why Israel can't explore the possibilities of making Egypt put its muscle where its mouth is.
Further on down in the body of both articles we get a delicious bit of irony. I'll take quote the Haaretz piece, but for now this is also in the Reuters article:
In a separate incident on Wednesday which further underscored the growing lawlessness in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian gunmen burst into a house in and tried to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an IDF bulldozer in 2003 as she protested the impending demolition of a house in the southern Gaza town, according to their host.
The five gunmen, who also appeared to be affiliated to the ruling Fatah movement, eventually relented after being told who their targets were, according to Samir Nasrallah, in whose house the couple was staying.
Corrie was crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to stop it from demolishing Nasrallah's house. Her parents, Craig and Cindy, have repeatedly visited Nasrallah since. They left Gaza safely after the incident, Nasrallah said.
The sad part of this, if it wasn't so farcical, is that no matter how the Corries might have been treated, they still would probably never change their opinions.
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