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Assassination fear: Mr Blair was rushed on to his plane after the shot was fired

Tony Blair's Scotland Yard bodyguard caused a security scare at an Israeli airport today when he accidentally fired his handgun.

The weapon went off at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv as the former Prime Minister was preparing to leave the country following another trip as Middle East peace envoy.

No one was injured in the incident, outside the terminal building. Israeli security guards and police rushed to the scene. An initial investigation revealed that the incident was due to an error by the bodyguard.

Airport Authority spokeswoman Maayan Malkin said: “One of his bodyguards
accidentally fired his gun and the bullet hit the ground.”

Mr Blair is expected to meet Barack Obama in the United States on Thursday
as part of a new push by President Bush to revive the peace process. The latest incident is further embarrassment to the former Prime Minister.

It emerged in September that his female bodyguard left a loaded semi-automatic Glock 17 pistol on the floor of a Starbuck’s lavatory in Edgware Road for nearly 20 minutes before it was discovered. Staff called 999.


Scene of drama: Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv

Last May, Israeli fighter jets scrambled to intercept a private jet carrying Mr Blair amid fears that the unidentified aircraft was hostile.

Mr Blair was flying from the World Economic Forum summit in Sinai, Egypt, to an investment conference in Bethlehem when his plane entered Israeli airspace and failed to respond to control tower calls demanding it identify itself.

Two fighter jets flew above Mr Blair’s plane and quickly established contact with the cockpit. The plane was said to have had a technical malfunction and could not hear the Israeli control tower’s calls.

Like all former premiers, Mr Blair will have Metropolitan Police protection officers guarding him for the rest of his life.

But he has extra protection because of his current work in the Middle East.

Scotland Yard’s SO1 protection unit, which also protects Gordon Brown and other non-royal VIPs, is responsible for looking after Mr Blair around the world. Given his decisions to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, their job is to protect him from al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Today's drama came after Mr Blair persuaded Israel to resume fuel shipments to Gaza’s only elecricity plant despite continued rocket fire by Hamas militants.

The facility shut on Monday a week after Israel stopped fuel in response to rocket attacks from Hamas.

Meanwhile, the UN relief agency in Gaza said it would have to suspend its operations in 48 hours unless vital supplies were allowed into Gaza.

But Israel has said only fuel will be allowed to pass across the border.

Christopher Gunness, spokesman for Unrwa, the UN agency in Gaza, said its warehouses were running out of wheat, meat, powdered milk and cooking oil.

He said food distributions to 750,000 would have stop unless supplies made it through, calling the Israeli blockade ‘physical and mental punishment’ of the population.

‘It is also shameful and unacceptable that the largest humanitarian actor in Gaza is being forced into yet another cycle of crisis management,’ Mr Gunness said.


Memorial: Mr Blair lays a wreath at the British Military Cemetery in Jerusalem today

Israeli officials said Defence Minister Ehud Barak had agreed to a limited resumption of fuel supplies to Gaza following an appeal by Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair.
Mr Blair as in Jerusalem after attending a meeting of the Quartet in Egypt on Sunday, aimed at resolving the conflict in the Middle East.

Last week, Israeli tanks and troops entered the Gaza Strip for the first time since an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire began in June. Six Palestinian militants were killed.
Meanwhile Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, which landed without causing casualties.


Duty: Mr Blair beside Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni yesterday

Most of Gaza City was plunged into darkness on Monday night as the electricity plant shut down.

The facility depends on supplies of industrial fuel, mainly paid for by foreign donors like the European Union, but transported through Israel.

For nearly a week the Israeli government has not allowed any goods into Gaza through its crossings, including fuel and food.

Israel says the Hamas authorities in Gaza have orchestrated an artificial crisis for political reasons.

But the United Nations has described the fuel shortages as ‘real and serious’.
Israel’s closure of the crossings has also kept journalists from entering Gaza for five days, drawing protests from the Tel Aviv-based Foreign Press Association.

The Gaza City plant provides about a quarter of the Gaza Strip’s electricity and more than half the electricity used by the city itself.

Most of the rest of the supply to the territory of 1.5 million people comes directly via power lines from Israel.

Palestinian engineers had been implementing a system of rolling blackouts to different areas of Gaza City to prevent the lines from Israel becoming overloaded and cutting out.


Source: Daily Mail UK, November 11, 2008


Comments: Blair's bodyguard detail is JINX, once left a Glock in the ladies washroom of Starbucks and now THIS misfiring!!! Must be made of clowns. How in the world can he have confidence with such a group of Clowns....