Essay: Israel-Hamas war: Shocking — not surprising — in a land of grief, hate and broken promises
A Palestinian laborer awoke at 4 a.m. He stepped past his wife and sleeping children and joined thousands of other men hurrying on foot through the streets of Gaza to an Israeli border checkpoint. They moved like a desperate parade — carrying lunch bags and borrowed tools — into the glare of searchlights, guard dogs and barricades.
Adnan Masri was herded through a barbed wire maze on that morning in 1997. An Israeli soldier called him over and patted him down. Masri cleared the checkpoint and hopped a ride north to construction sites near Tel Aviv where another indignity awaited: Palestinians had been replaced on many jobs by immigrants from other countries. The laborer cursed and pleaded. But with tears in his eyes, Masri, trailing other angry men who shared his fate, surrendered himself again to the checkpoint, returning home humiliated and unable to feed his children.
A few months later, blew themselves up at a Jerusalem
