10/01/2009 [Extend]

The guy with sunglasses seated in front of me is young, may be 30 years old. He is the contact between Egyptian intelligence and people who intend to enter into Gaza.

Another guy, older, too with sunglasses and wearing a black coat, surely from intelligence, is listening without saying anything.

I'm inside a little office at the entrance at the Rafah gate, on the Egyptian side. I'm trying to convince them to let me get through the border.

The guy nods his head. We are so many to do this. We all want to go inside Gaza, but since Monday morning, the access is limited to the humanitarian aid, the ambulances and to the doctors, the nurses and the medics who have the right letter from their embassies or their Egyptian organization.

Outside o... [Extend]

picture by Philip Rizik [Extend]

Two buses of demonstrators were denied to get to Rafah at this point [Extend]

As I write, we can hear the dull thud of explosions in the distance. Israeli airstrikes continue to blast targets in southern Gaza. Merciless bombing of the small Gaza Strip continues into a third week. I heard some people here in Egypt wonder if the Israeli Air Force must be running out of places and people to target. But perhaps the surveillance drones we heard and saw flying over the Rafah border crossing today hunted down more spots on which bombers could fix their cross-hairs. Perhaps they spotted underground tunnels. The Israeli government has, reportedly, already destroyed 80% of the tunnels that connect Gaza with the outside world. It's common knowledge that a vast network of tunnels, some say as many as 1700, were constructed, many from outside Gaza's territorial borders... [Extend]

Israel exporta su tecnología de guarda fronteras. Via Ana Valdes [Extend]