Griffin In Gaza: “They Trusted Us, And They Let Our Cameras Come In”

Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin is taking viewers to the heart of the forced removal of settlers in Gaza this week. “When I see her reports, I feel like I’m there,” an e-mailer said today. This afternoon Griffin spoke to TVNewser via cell phone from Gaza:

“Gaza is a place we’ve been covering for a long time; we know a lot of the families here,” she explained. “We knew a lot of the families that were being displaced, so they allowed us in — They trusted us, and they let our cameras come in.”

Yesterday, Griffin’s team was able to follow Israeli soldiers as they entered homes and forced settlers to leave. The crew was working wirelessly, “so that’s why we were able to bring some of those scenes to people live,” she said.

Griffin is working with DC based field producer Maya Zumwalt, cameraman Yaniv Turgeman and soundman Yaron Sinai.

Today, the crew was on the scene as SWAT teams entered Kfar Darom synagogue. “After the army entered the synagogue, we finagled our way in,” Griffin said. “When we got onto the steps of the synagogue, we kept negotiating our way through.”

The Jewish activists inside the synagogue filled glass lightbulbs with paint and tossed them at the army. “They were aiming at the soldiers and they were hitting the journalists too, so I’m covered in white paint right now,” she said.

Griffin said the Israelis have provided “extraordinary” access. “I’ve worked in places like Russia and you don’t access like this there. The Israeli army and the police here have done an incredible job of making sure the media has been right in there,” she said.

> Griffin’s live report on Wednesday was perhaps “the most personal and richly evocative sequence of the day,” today’s Washington Post says…