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The State Department announced that it would restore financial aid to the Fatah government on the West Bank and extend humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. "The trick will be to keep Hamas from claiming credit" for its delivery, mused ABC's Dean Reynolds (subscription required). Reynolds contrasted Hamas--"elected fair and square" in parliamentary elections--with the new Palestinian regime recognized by the United States, "headed by a prime minister whose party won all of 3% in that election." He generalized about Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq: "A lack of popular support for leaders allied with the US often undermines the best American intentions."
CBS sent Richard Roth to the border of Gaza where Israeli troops deterred refugees from crossing with "tear gas and warning shots." Israel controls Gaza's airspace, its coastline and 32 miles of its land border, Roth observed: "If Gaza was already the world's biggest prison, the rules now amount to a lockdown." NBC's Martin Fletcher told anchor Brian Williams that he wants to report from Gaza but cannot: "It is heartbreaking. It is just too dangerous." His unidentified Gazan sources told him that he would be kidnapped, just as the BBC's Alan Johnston has been. Fletcher reported that Johnston is being held in the center of the Strip by the powerful Dagmoush Clan, which is gearing up for a feud with Hamas militiamen. "If I were a kidnapped journalist in Gaza the last thing I would want to know is that the Hamas government was coming to free me. That could be a death sentence."
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