(Salon.com) Mitchell Prothero - I started calling it a civil war when the family of a slain bodyguard took over the lobby of my hotel and began firing at the Hamas gunmen across the street. Bullets flying around, black-shirted gunmen counterattacking, and pools of blood on the floor of my hotel lobby - that's not journalism, it's getting shot at. A lot of the goodwill toward the foreign journalist dries up when it's Arabs fighting each other. Suddenly, you're not documenting a noble struggle against occupation, you're just some foreigner. And if you're in a hospital full of pissed-off Military Intelligence officials tending to their wounded, it's a disaster. As I tried to take pictures, I was suddenly surrounded by a mob of armed men grabbing at my cameras. This was the first week Hamas had deployed men in the thousands with their faces uncovered. They were well equipped, with new guns. Smuggled guns are pouring in through Rafah on the Egyptian border. My driver Khalil and I devised a rule: Guys with masks, burning tires, screaming and waving guns at us were unavailable for comment. We also saw that Hamas guys shoot less and aim more than Fatah militiamen.
2006-05-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive