On the front-line

Laila El-Haddad is a journalist, blogger and mother living in Gaza City. The Guardian has commissioned her to write a series on the forthcoming Palestinian election. Her first entry offers some perspective on life in Gaza and the current security issues:

"We’ve had an unusual spell of quiet in our otherwise troubled little Gaza this week. That may be attributed in part to the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, which comes to its conclusion today. That, in combination with an ailing Ariel Sharon and calls by Mahmoud Abbas to armed groups for some “calm” (not that his calls have necessarily been heeded in the past), has meant a somewhat quieter week: no kidnappings, no government-building takeovers, no night-time machine gun banter between police forces and “disgruntled gunmen” to keep us entertained during breaks from Israeli sonic booms and artillery shells.

"The brief calm also seems to strengthen the argument of those who posit that the recent chaos was, in fact, premeditated by certain political elements in an effort to destabilise the government or postpone elections. My guess is the gunmen are too busy devouring their Eid meat."