Dire predictions for a Rafah-style run on the Erez Crossing fizzled out Monday along with Hamas hopes for a publicity coup as dreary weather combined with what appeared to be a simple lack of motivation on the Palestinian side to participate in the "human chain across Gaza" demonstration.
In the hours following what one officer termed "the march that wasn't," security forces reduced their level of alert Monday evening, believing that Hamas's motivation to try another such event in the near future had been weakened.
After the event, Palestinian media reported that 20,000 people had participated in the demonstration, half the anticipated number. In Beit Hanun, a city of 32,000, approximately 5,000 Palestinians turned out to form their part of a human chain - but the numbers throughout the Gaza Strip were insufficient to connect the chain's different links.
At one point, Palestinians said, some 2,000 hard-liners marched to a point several kilometers away from the Erez Crossing, but Hamas police blocked the main road leading to Erez and called on the protesters to obey the law.
I figure the rest were busy firing on Sderot.
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