Gaza briefs

The Palestinian-Egyptian relationships are souring.

Angry Palestinian demonstrators stormed the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City on Monday, demanding that Egypt release five Palestinians held in Cairo jails.

Palestinian security forces fired shots above the heads of a crowd of protesters to force them out of the embassy, said security official Ali Qaisi. Protesters said they tried to block an Egyptian official’s car, demanding he speak to the crowd. When security guards pushed them back, they ran onto embassy grounds.

Why is that, exactly?

Relations hit a low after Col. Burhan Hamad, head of Egypt’s security delegation in Gaza, criticized Palestinian militants for firing rockets at Israel, drawing a flood of angry statements by militant factions.

Oh. The Egyptians are asking the Pals not to kill Israelis. Damn those Egyptians! Don’t they understand that it’s the “legitimate right”?

Palestinian teachers are on strike.

So, you mean they won’t be in the classroom teaching their students to hate Jews? May the strike last forever.

The thugs who kidnapped Alan Johnston want more money. Or something. The “negotiators” aren’t telling the press.

A senior Palestinian official said Monday that a kidnapped British reporter is still alive and the men holding him had made new demands but were turned down.

Deputy Prime Minister Azzam al-Ahmed said the kidnappers confirmed that 44-year-old British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent Alan Johnston was in good health. Johnston was abducted near his Gaza City apartment March 12.

Al-Ahmed would not say who talked to the kidnappers or how it was known that they have Johnston, although he indicated there had been previous phone contact with them. In Gaza it is widely believed that the identity of the kidnappers is known, but that no move has been made against them in order not to endanger the journalist.

They’ve known who had Johnston since he was kidnapped, just as they know who’s holding Gilad Shalit. It’s one of Gaza’s largest clans. They’ve simply been lying about it.

Al-Ahmed said efforts to win the reporter’s release had reached a sensitive stage.

“We hope it will end soon,” he said. “If we don’t reach an agreement, the law will take its course, whatever method we will use to end this issue which has given the Palestinians a bad image.”

Al-Ahmed described the abductors as a criminal gang, but would not say whether they demanded ransom. He said the kidnappers had been trying to present the abduction as an ideological act.

And if you’re not interested in clicking through, it’s the Durmush clan. What a great bunch of people they must be. Word is they’re the ones who are also holding Gilad Shalit. Must be that fabled Arab hospitality. They like you so much, they never let you leave, or something.

Gaza. Go visit it for your next vacation. Remember to bring your own bodyguards, though.