Up at 5.45 for a quick breakfast and off to Gaza.
Passed Ashkolon prison, where Mordecai Vinoonoo is being held for revealing Israel's nuclear capabilities. He is a Christian and has only recently come out of eleven years solitary.
Lots of olive trees, which need to be tended by people as they can't grow by themselves. Cactus was once used to define the borders between land, and seeing cactus in the middle of nowhere means that there was once a Palestinian village there, now gone.
Took ages to get through the border controls to Gaza; we had one soldier dealing with thirty six passports. The soldiers seem bored but amenable.
Once into Gaza, we visited the Al Ahli Anglican Hospital, which has a Chapel in it's grounds, but can only hold services if the priest can get into Gaza, which isn't very often. In fact as tourists it's easier for us to get into Gaza than it is for Israeli's.
The hospital operating theatres are the sort of places you see in World War 2 films !
They have a sparse library, but the literature is fairly up to date 1980-90's.
The streets may be dirty and full of litter but inside the buildings is very clean.
Palestinians have access to a third of Gaza. We had lunch on the beach. The water isn't safe to swim in so no-one bothered, not that we had much time.
Visited a refugee camp with a 4 room house, and 4 families living in it, one in each room.
We visited the airport and popped down to the Egyptian border. The airport is nice and modern but has two Russian aircraft and one Boeing 727.
Whether the aircraft can actually fly anywhere is controlled by Israel, as the planes have to fly through Israeli airspace. Our guide told us of a story that King Hussein of Jordan flew to Gaza airport and the Israeli traffic controller refused him permission to fly through Israeli airspace. The King replied that they either give permission or they shoot him down and start a diplomatic incident since he was going to Gaza, their call !
We visited a lawyer's centre for Human Rights, and we were all fighting to stay awake - it was warm and we were tired. Some people wore their sunglasses so that one couldn't see their closed eyes ! The talk was interesting but we all felt bad about not being more awake.