Haniyeh: Hamas will not recognize Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 1, 2009 - 12:00am

De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Monday evening reiterated Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel repeating his famous line, “Castles will not fall, neither will they determine our attitudes by force, and we will not recognize Israel.” Haniyeh’s comments came during an iftar, the sundown meal breaking the Ramadan fast along with dignitaries from the eastern Gaza Strip. “The pledge between us and the Palestinian people is that we do not remiss martyrs’ blood, nor Jerusalem, nor our holy land. Our prisoners will be freed for sure.”


Hamas mulls denying Fatah leaders entry to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas hinted on Monday that Fatah officials who have been in the West Bank for their party’s recent convention might not be allowed to return to the Gaza Strip. “The Gaza Strip is accessible for all Palestinian people, but officially and in coordination with the government in Gaza. It is not accessible for those who violated the law and coordinated with occupation,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Ma’an.

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Hamas vows to continue struggle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Abdul Jalil Mustafa - August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

The head of Hamas’ political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, pledged on Sunday his movement would continue its struggle for “the liberation of Palestine.” Meshaal was addressing an audience at a tent set up in Sweileh, where he received condolences over the death of his father, Abdul Rahim Meshaal, who was buried on Saturday. “Hamas, which has a political vision, sticks to the land, Jerusalem, the right of return (for Palestinian refugees) and resistance as a way for the liberation of Palestine as well as to the political and diplomatic equations and other spheres of work,” Meshaal said.

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Israel Launches Air Strike in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Voice of America
by Robert Berger - August 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel has launched an air strike in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. There was damage, but no reports of injuries. The Israeli air force bombed a tunnel the army said was meant to smuggle Palestinian terrorists from Gaza into Israel. A building over the entrance to the tunnel was destroyed about a kilometer and a-half from the Israeli border fence. The military said the air raid was in response to Palestinians firing a rocket into Israel on Saturday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has adopted a new policy of deterrence since he took office five months ago.

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Q+A--Is al Qaeda opening a Gaza front?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - August 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Explosions at two sensitive sites in the Gaza Strip [ID:nLU529969] have prompted speculation on Sunday that they were the work of al Qaeda-aligned radicals opposed to the Palestinian enclave's Islamist rulers Hamas. Here are comments on key questions about the incidents: WHO WAS BEHIND THE BOMBINGS? No credible claim of responsibility has been made.

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Hamas slams UN over 'Holocaust classes' in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
August 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas condemned the United Nations on Sunday, saying it planned to teach Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip about the Holocaust – but the UN agency which runs schools in the enclave would not confirm any change. Branding the Nazi genocide of the Jews "a lie invented by the Zionists", the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza Strip wrote in an open letter to a senior UN official that he should withdraw plans for a new history book in UN schools.

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Hamas fights the Salafists to gain more legitimacy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Mkhaimar Abusada - August 28, 2009 - 12:00am

The recent shoot-out in a Gaza mosque between Hamas security officers and militants from the radical jihadist group the Warriors of God brought to the surface the deep tensions that divide Palestinian Islamists. Twenty-two people died, including the Warriors of God’s leader, Abdel-Latif Moussa. But Palestinian security officials doubt that these will be the last casualties.

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PLO to pick new leaders at landmark meeting
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Google News
August 26, 2009 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on Wednesday began its first meeting in more than a decade in the occupied West Bank to replace leaders who have died. During the meeting in the territory's political capital of Ramallah, the Palestinian National Council (PNC) will pick six new members of the 18-strong PLO Executive Committee headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

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Abbas vows to reform PLO
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Ramallah – Ma’an – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to reform the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and expressed solidarity with Lebanon and Syria on Wednesday at an emergency session of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) in Ramallah. Abbas called for the PNC meeting in order to appoint new members to fill vacant positions on the PLO’s high-ranking Executive Committee.

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Hamas: Only breakthrough in Shalit deal is German mediation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

German involvement in mediation over a prisoner swap for the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit has advanced the negotiations but a breakthrough is not imminent, Hamas said on Tuesday. Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip, wants to trade Shalit for hundreds of jailed Palestinians. Israel long balked at freeing some of the prisoners but local media have recently reported progress.

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