French FM faces Gaza ire over war crimes misquote

AFP/Gaza

Palestinian demonstrators mob French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie’s armoured car at Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip yesterday

Angry Palestinians mobbed French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie as she visited Gaza yesterday in a mix-up over a "war crimes” quote mistakenly attributed to her.
On her first visit to Gaza since taking office in November, Alliot-Marie was twice ambushed by demonstrators who hurled eggs and shoes, enraged over reports of a remark that she had never made.
After the protests subsided, France’s top diplomat pressed on with her visit, issuing an urgent call for Israel to end its blockade on the impoverished strip, which is home to 1.5mn people.
The protests began early when dozens of protesters waving signs reading "Get out of Gaza” ambushed the French convoy shortly after it entered the strip.
Many hammered on the minister’s car with their fists, while others hurled shoes, and one jumped on top of the car.
The anger was sparked by a statement mistakenly attributed to Alliot-Marie when she met the parents of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
At the meeting on Thursday, father Noam Shalit asked Alliot-Marie to press the European Union to "condemn as a war crime” the detention of his son, an AFP correspondent said.
Shortly afterwards, however, Israel’s public radio posted a story on its Arabic-language website mistakenly quoting Alliot-Marie as saying the EU "must condemn the war crime that Hamas is committing by keeping Gilad Shalit in captivity.”
Women and children were among the protesters, many of whom were holding up photographs of family members imprisoned in Israel.
Others held up banners with a red "banned” symbol over a picture of the French minister, as a man with a loudspeaker angrily denounced the "war crimes” statement.
As the protest converged on the convoy, two terrified children were flung to the ground in front of the wheels of the lead vehicle, where they lay crying for several minutes before being hauled away by their families.
Hamas police eventually cleared the road allowing the convoy to continue.
"There were between 30 and 50 demonstrators; it wasn’t very serious,” the minister said later. "Among the demonstrators were mothers whose sadness I can understand, but there were others who had other intentions.”
She then went to Al Quds hospital, only to be set upon for a second time by protesters, who shoved and jostled the security detail surrounding her as she went in.
One hurled a shoe that was deftly caught by one of the bodyguards as Alliot-Marie ducked out of the way. Others pelted her car with eggs.
Alliot-Marie was unharmed but Valerie Hoffenberg, an aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the peace process, got hit in the head by a camera as photographers pressed in to capture the confrontation.
After leaving Gaza, Hoffenberg was treated for a bruise at an Israeli hospital, a delegation source said.