gaza strip

Program joins Palestinians and Israelis as interns in the District
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - August 12, 2010 - 12:00am

A sweltering June day at Reagan National Airport. Mariam Ashour walks to the parking lot, "freaking out in my mind," looking for someone she has never met. Noam Rabinovich sits in a car, trying to identify Ashour, with whom she has exchanged only a few messages on Facebook. As they approach each other, something strange happens, something neither can fully explain. They hug. "I don't want to over-dramatize the moment, but time stopped for a second," Ashour said later. "To me it was, like, 'Wow.' I was very happy."

Hamas’ many-splendored contradictions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) August 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas was in the news last week, accused by Egypt of having been behind the rocket attacks from the Sinai against the Israeli town of Eilat and the Jordanian town of Aqaba. This, once again, told us something about the paradoxes of the Islamist group.

Three militants injured in Hamas-Islamic Jihad clash in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Three militants were injured in clashes between the Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) group on Thursday. The Islamic Jihad movement said in a press release that clashes erupted after an argument between one of its fighters and Hamas gunmen in the outskirts of Gaza city. "The argument developed into clashes which left two Hamas militants injured," said the press release, adding "one of our fighters was kidnapped and beaten up by Hamas militants."

UN rights body tells Israel to end Gaza blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jonathan Lynn - July 30, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel must lift its military blockade of the Gaza Strip and invite an independent, fact-finding mission to investigate its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a United Nations rights body said on Friday. The U.N. Human Rights Committee also told Israel to ensure that Palestinians in the occupied territories can enjoy the human rights that Israel had pledged to uphold in the main international human rights treaty.

David Cameron describes blockaded Gaza as a 'prison'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
July 28, 2010 - 12:00am

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the blockade of the Gaza Strip, describing the territory as a "prison camp". He also criticised Israel for launching an attack on a convoy transporting Turkish activists and aid to Gaza. Nine Turkish citizens died in the raid. He was speaking to an audience of businessmen during a visit to Ankara. The Israeli embassy in London said Gazans were prisoners of Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas. Israel and Egypt enforce a blockade on Gaza which restricts goods and people from coming in or out freely.

Israeli premier talks to Jordanian king about need for direct Mideast peace negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Jamal Halaby - July 28, 2010 - 12:00am

In a surprise visit to Amman on Tuesday, Israel's prime minister tried to mobilize Jordan's king in his effort to persuade the Palestinians to resume direct peace talks, though the chief Palestinian negotiator again rejected the idea. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's quick trip to neighboring Jordan came after a Palestinian document, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, noted that President Barack Obama's envoy is also pressing the Palestinians to restart direct peace negotiations with Israel.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, do you still have hope after the IDF killed your daughters and niece in Gaza?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Limor Shmuel Friedman - (Interview) July 26, 2010 - 12:00am

TORONTO - Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish speaks frankly to Israelis and Palestinians, in synagogues, mosques and cultural centers, in this city, where he now resides. On January 16, 2009 three of his daughters, Bessan (20 ), Mayar (15 ) and Aya (13 ), and his niece, Noor (17 ) were killed by an Israel Defense Forces shell fired directly into their bedroom. When Operation Cast Lead in Gaza started, he stopped traveling to his job at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, where he worked in in vitro fertilization.

‘Lonely country’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) July 23, 2010 - 12:00am

The outgoing Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gabriella Shalev, has lamented to American journalists that Israel is “the most isolated, lonely country in the world”. Would that were so. It certainly deserves to be. But like so many Israeli assertions this is a wild exaggeration, in this case a crude attempt to tug the heartstrings of American public opinion knowing that it is the motor that drives White House foreign policy.

The Israel-Turkey Imbroglio
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) July 9, 2010 - 12:00am

NEW YORK — Here’s an intriguing nugget, given Turkey’s recent decision to close its airspace to Israeli military planes: When Israel attacked a covert Syrian nuclear reactor on Sept. 6, 2007, its bombers overflew Turkey. A former senior U.S. official who was intimately involved in handling the fallout from the raid told me Turkish officials raised the issue with Israel, were invited to discuss the matter, but in the end let it drop. Those were different times, before Turkish-Israeli ties entered their current poisonous phase.

Gaza siege damages Palestinians' health - study
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Kate Kelland - July 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian health experts studying the impact of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip say it threatens to cause long-term damage to Palestinians' health, with many children at risk of stunted growth or malnutrition. In a series of studies published in the Lancet medical journal on Friday, researchers also said Israel's attack on the region in early 2009 had a devastating effect, causing injury, displacement and social suffering, particularly among children.

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