New Orleans-based CNN cameraman Ken Tillis had just left Baghdad after seven weeks in Iraq, and I assumed Gaza would be a welcome respite.

Ken had joined me for a quick trip down to the Gaza Strip to do a story on the situation there before the arrival of US President George W. Bush to Israel and the Palestinian Territories. (Here is the story we did.) I did my best to brief Ken on what to expect on this, his first ever visit to Gaza.

Going in, I told him confidently on the early morning drive from Jerusalem, would be pretty straightforward. Half hour an hour, maximum, and we would be through the Erez Crossing.

But the roar of heavy automatic machinegun fire made me look like a somewhat dishonest guide.

Later I learned a Palestinian man and woman had opened fire on the wall that divides Israel from Gaza. Israel forces fired back, from a variety of directions. The two would-be attackers were dead in a matter of minutes, but the firing went on for at least two hours.

“We’d better put on our flack jackets,” I told Ken, as the firing went on.

“In seven weeks in Iraq I never heard as much shooting as this,” Ken told me, as we dug into our bags and donned the heavy body armour.

I called our driver, the long-suffering but ever cheerful Abu Sabri to see what was going on from his vantage point about a kilometre away.

“They’re shooting at something here, but I don’t know what,” he told me. “Be careful,” he warned. “I’ll tell the porters to come to you.”

Ken and I waited, and after a few minutes the porter, who goes by the name of Abu Antar, showed up with his cart to carry out gear away.

“It’s worse than ever,” he told me, as he tells me every time I make the crossing. Abu Antar wasn’t even talking about the gunfire: he was talking about trying to scrape. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of Gazans, he’s always right.

As the shooting continued, we made our way to the passageway leading into Gaza, a long concrete walkway shielded on both sides by blast walls and covered by some sort of plastic sheeting. After about 100 steps there is a large iron gate controlled remotely by someone on the Israeli side. There we found a German journalist, and several elderly Palestinians waiting to go into Gaza, and on the other side, waiting to enter Israel, an old woman in a wheel chair, a young man in a wheelchair who had lost his legs in a traffic accident, and a gaggle of chain-smoking businessmen. The gate was shut, so everyone was waiting for the unknown, faceless, nameless person to press the button to open it.

We waited, about two hours, until the shooting stopped. The gate was finally opened, and into Gaza we went. Just as we emerged from the passageway into the sunlight I heard two large explosions to our left.

Two rockets had just been launched from Gaza, with great plumes of white smoke. One of the rockets exploded shortly after take off. I couldn’t see where the other landed.

I’ve been to Gaza more times than I can count over that last 14 years, but never have I had such an eventful arrival. And Ken, who knows? He’s going to think it’s like this all the time here.

--From CNN'S Ben Wedeman