Jerusalem to Gaza

I landed in Tel Aviv at 4:30 in the morning, Israel time, and was whisked to Jerusalem by the bureau driver, Yoram. I had a lovely room waiting at the American Colony Hotel, an old Ottoman pasha's home that was bought in the early 1900s by a colony of American Christians. But I was out by 9 a.m. to get my press card and read up on developments and then climbed back in the car for the drive south to Gaza.

I didn't have a chance to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the old city, as I had hoped. Above is a picture I took on my first trip to Jerusalem of Armenians holding mass there before the presumed site of the crucifixion.

Today was sunny and clear. This is a view of the old city from the Mount of Olives. I also took it during my first trip to Jerusalem. The large open space with the trees is what the Jews call the Temple Mount and is where Solomon's temple once stood and is where the second temple was built to replace it. It is where Jesus debated with the priests as a child and later threw out the moneychangers as an adult. The golden dome is the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine built over the stone on which Abraham nearly sacrificed his son in a test of loyalty to God.

Both Jews and Arabs claim Abraham as their ancestor, which is why the Palestinians refer sardonically to the Israelis as 'our cousins.'

We headed out of town.

Through the hills south of Jerusalem.

To the Erez Crossing, the only way into Gaza these days. It is in the northern border of the Gaza Strip.

It's a forbidding place.

A kind of fortress has built up in response to the many attacks against the Israelis here.

A row of ambulances are always ready.

After registering with the Israeli Defense Forces, you walk through this gate ...

... and into this no-mans land.

And keep walking. There is no traffic at the moment. I was alone except for a few Palestinian porters, one of whom carried my bags.

Going in is a lot easier than getting out. On the way out, people have to pass one by one through a sort of maze, following the instructions from an unseen Israeli soldier who speaks through a microphone and watches on a closed circuit television. The soldier asks you to turn around, pull up your shirt, etc., until he is satisfied that you are not concealing a bomb.

But on the way into Gaza, there is much less scrutiny. You eventually reach this double gate and wait until the first one opens electronically.

And then you pass into a holding pen and wait for the next gate to open electronically. There isn't much to look at while between the two gates except, now, this poster offering a $10 million reward for any information leading the recovery of Israeli soldiers captured or missing in action.

The porter used a cart as long as we were in the Israeli built section of the no-mans land, which continues for a while after the double electronic gates. It is a covered corridor formed with high blast walls.

The Palestinian-built section is much less formidable.

Eventually, the end is near.

After registering with the Palestinian police sitting at a battered table, you head for this gate.

Where, hopefully, a taxi is waiting. This is the bureau's regular Gaza driver. Many of the taxis in Gaza are six-door Mercedes because whole families often travel together.

We passed the final checkpoint and crossed an area where an Israeli tank had been firing hours earlier. Mortar fire thumped and rumbled at regular intervals.

Gaza City is a ramshackle place. The streets are empty these days. The flags on the lampposts represent the two main Palestinian factions, green for Hamas and yellow for al Aqsa Brigade.

The billboards in town are mostly painted with portraits of men who have died fighting Israel.

Finally, we reached the hotel. It is the best hotel in town.

The rooms are spacious, but the electricity supply is irregular and there is only sporadic airconditioning. Most of the time, it is stuffy and warm.

The view is of a bit of sea and a half-built hotel across the way.

I settled down to take a nap when the phone rang. The Times photogrpaher was going to the Egyptian border, which had been closed since the crisis began. Militants had apparently forced open the border, allowing thousands of people to cross into Gaza.

The scene was very chaotic.

Periodic gunfire sent people stampeding. Eventually, Israeli forces approached firing heavy machine guns and everyone scattered. We drove back to the hotel.