Crowd attacks Foreign Minister over 'war crime'

Palestinian protesters hurled eggs at the French Foreign Minister during a visit to Gaza yesterday and narrowly missed hitting her with a shoe because they mistakenly believed she had called the capture of an Israeli soldier a "war crime".

The remark had actually been made by the soldier's father after meeting the French minister the day before, in his campaign to win the release of his son, Gilad Schalit, who was captured in a 2006 cross-border raid by militants with ties to Hamas.

A missile hit French diplomat Valerie Hoffenberg who was treated in hospital. Dozens of protesters, relatives of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, had been waiting for the Foreign Minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, as she crossed from Israel into Gaza through the Erez Crossing, lying on the road and jumping on her vehicle. They pelted her motorcade with eggs and lobbed a shoe.