“I haven’t heard anyone express any interest,  no one much cares about the damn thing” replied one person here when I asked about the Gazan interest in Mahmoud Abbas’s bid for ‘non-member observer state’ status at the UN. So I was surprised to find several thousand protesters, filling the streets of Gaza City yesterday, marching to the UNSCO building in support of the bid.  Demonstrators … Continue reading Gaza reacts – somewhat – to the UN bid for Palestinian statehood

As we stood at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, a high-pitched bleep barely preceded the booms and the pressure drop as Israeli artillery targeting tunnels exploded half a kilometre away.  I always knew our trip to Gaza would be no ‘jolly’ but this added a whole new dimension of fear. In the end the Egyptians wouldn’t let us through and we returned to Cairo to … Continue reading Gaza: a warm welcome in the aftermath of Pillar of Defence