The world looks on in horror

At a French airport as final calls were made for a flight to Tel Aviv, I watched a group of soldiers entering the terminal.

- Charlotte Grimshaw

Their movements were oddly slow; they spread out, stationed themselves against pillars, glided through the crowd, eyes swivelling, big guns held high. Being French, they topped off their camouflage fatigues with sensational hats - an extra-wide alpine beret - and stylish boots. They patrolled and loomed, and once the travellers to Israel had boarded, they melted away.

The world is on high alert, for obvious reasons. There is such horror at events in Gaza that people want to shout and rail, take it out on someone. In Milan, a Jewish man and his young son were horribly set upon by people shouting “Free Palestine”.

In the UK, another kind of patrolling and looming is taking place in response. The government has declared Palestine Action, a group protesting about Gaza, a terrorist organisation.

Palestine Action earned their designation as terrorists by carrying out protests that caused property damage in sensitive places: in one, members broke into an airfield and damaged the engines of military planes with spray paint.