1 dead, dozens injured in Gaza by suspected white phosphorus munitions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Yasser Ahmad, Richard Boudreaux - January 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinian villagers said the shelling came from the direction of the Israeli border, less than a mile away, scattering flaming objects in their midst and burning down 20 homes and the local United Nations-run school. "One landed in my kitchen and caused a fire," said Zohair Mohammed abu Rejila, 35. "I went to put it out, but another one landed on Mayar, my baby daughter. It was like a block of fire, a piece of plastic on fire. When I knocked it off her, it exploded and out came this heavy white smoke with a very bad smell."

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Battered by Israel, Hamas faces tough choice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Rushdi Abu Alouf, Jeffrey Fleishman - January 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Hamas fighters are scattered in cells across the Gaza Strip, launching rockets, ambushing Israeli soldiers, and vanishing into tunnels and bunkers to escape airstrikes on a pummeled terrain of shattered buildings and bodies curled and crumpled in the streets.

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Israel sees cracks in Hamas's will to fight
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
January 12, 2009 - 1:00am

On the 17th day of the war against Hamas, Israel said it launched around 15 airstrikes overnight, fewer than in some recent nights, as Israeli troops pushed into a heavily populated area of Gaza City from the south on Sunday in fierce fighting that reportedly continued on Monday. Senior Israeli officials said for the first time in the war that they believed that the Hamas military wing was beginning to crack and that Hamas leaders inside Gaza were looking for a cease-fire. News reports said Hamas fired at least one missile out of Gaza into southern Israel without causing casualties.

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Blair Says Mideast Cease-Fire Elements in Place
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - January 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli war planes and gunboats destroyed targets in the Gaza Strip Monday, including homes of Hamas leaders, as special Mideast envoy Tony Blair said after a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that "the elements of an agreement" for a cease-fire are in place. Blair, the former British prime minister, spoke amid intense negotiations aimed at bringing the 17-day war to a halt. Both Israel and Hamas are participating.

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Egypt defends its Gaza policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Nadia Abou el-Magd - January 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Egyptian officials yesterday launched a public relations offensive aimed at defending the government’s policies towards the Gaza Strip and tempering growing criticism of its handling of the two-week-long conflict.

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Security First
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by J.D. Crouch II, Montgomery Meigs, Walter B. Slocombe - (Opinion) January 12, 2009 - 1:00am

When the dust settles in Gaza, the Obama administration will take up the mantle of moving the two sides toward an Israeli-Palestinian peace. American efforts must focus on strengthening the capabilities of the Palestinian party upon whom hope for peace can rest, the Palestinian Authority, and ensuring the stability of the West Bank.

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Gaza, a chance to reaffirm the two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) January 12, 2009 - 1:00am

The renewed violence between Israel and Hamas, in which 1.5 million innocent Palestinians are caught, is yet another demonstration that there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel will not be able to secure its future, normalize its relations with the region and live in peace without an agreement with the Palestinians. Palestinians will not achieve liberation and independence without an agreement with Israel.

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A big shudder on the wing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) January 11, 2009 - 1:00am

Around two weeks after the start of fighting in Gaza, there are only vague reports on Israel's success in damaging Hamas' terrorist infrastructure. On the other hand, statistics on the harm done to civilians accumulate. More than 800 Palestinians have been killed and around 3,000 have been wounded, an overwhelming majority of them from air strikes. According to UN figures, half of those killed are civilians, and half of the civilians killed are women and children.

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Crisis Imperils 2-State Plan, Shifting a Balance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Michael Slackman - (Analysis) January 11, 2009 - 1:00am

With every image of the dead in Gaza inflaming people across the Arab world, Egyptian and Jordanian officials are worried that they see a fundamental tenet of the Middle East peace process slipping away: the so-called two-state solution, an independent Palestinian state coexisting with Israel.

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Israeli troops, militants battle in Gaza suburb
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ibrahim Barzak, Matti Friedman - January 11, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen in a suburb of Gaza City Sunday in one of the fiercest ground battles so far as Israel's military inched toward Gaza's population centers. A top Israeli defense official said Hamas has been badly hurt by the offensive in Gaza - especialy by the deaths of senior militants and shortages of ammunition - but predicted that the group would fight on. The group "is not expected to raise a white flag," military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told the Israeli Cabinet Sunday.

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