Israel hits Gaza tunnels in response to barrel bombs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
February 3, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel destroyed two Gaza smuggling tunnels in response to Hamas' attempt to attack Israeli targets in the Mediterranean Sea. Israel's Air Force on Tuesday night struck the tunnels used by Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces. On Wednesday, a third explosives-laden barrel released by Palestinian terrorists washed up on the beach at Palmachim, in central Israel.

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Blair: Gaza's great betrayer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Avi Shlaim - (Opinion) February 3, 2010 - 1:00am

The savage attack Israel ­unleashed against Gaza on 27 December 2008 was both immoral and unjustified. Immoral in the use of force against civilians for political purposes. Unjustified because Israel had a political alternative to the use of force. The home-made Qassam rockets fired by Hamas militants from Gaza on Israeli towns were only the ­excuse, not the reason for Operation Cast Lead. In June 2008, Egypt had ­brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement.

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Israel's Uncivil War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Benjamin Joffe-Walt - (Analysis) February 3, 2010 - 1:00am

It all began with enough reports to fill the average Ph.D. candidate's reading list for weeks. In the months following the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, governments, civil society groups and human rights organizations issued dozens of reports, some of them well over 100 pages long, on the legality, operation and effects of the war.

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UN find challenges Israeli version of attack on civilian building in Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory McCarthy - February 1, 2010 - 1:00am

A new Israeli report defending the military's conduct in the Gaza war was challenged tonight after evidence emerged apparently contradicting one of its key findings. Israel submitted a 46-page report to the UN on Friday saying its forces abided by international law throughout the three-week war last year. It was meant to avert the threat of international prosecutions and to challenge a highly critical UN inquiry by South African judge Richard Goldstone, which accused both Israel and Hamas of "grave breaches" of the fourth Geneva convention, war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

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War crimes in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) February 1, 2010 - 1:00am

The Feb. 5 deadline for the Palestine Authority and Israel to respond to allegations in the Goldstone Report that Israel committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during last year’s Gaza war will most likely come and pass. Israel roundly rejected the Goldstone Report; Gaza’s authorities accepted its findings in full.

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Israel admission on white phosphorus doesn't settle larger debate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - February 1, 2010 - 1:00am

The revelation by Israel that two senior military officers have been reprimanded for using white phosphorus in last year’s Gaza war has been met with both criticism and measured applause; Haaretz columnist Amos Harel welcomed it under the headline, “At Last, A Real Response.”

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Menachem Mazuz: Israel must probe Gaza war to counter Goldstone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - January 29, 2010 - 1:00am

The Goldstone report is a serious threat to Israel that will "continue to haunt us and take away our legitimacy," outgoing told Haaretz in an interview.

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Goldstone report keeps Israel on tenterhooks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Craig Nelson - (Analysis) January 29, 2010 - 1:00am

From Israel’s point of view, the UN report accusing its military of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity during its invasion last winter of the Gaza Strip might be subtitled “The Report That Won’t Go Away”.

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Netanyahu sees Israel image boost in Haiti relief
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeffrey Heller - January 28, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday an Israeli army field hospital that treated earthquake victims in Haiti had given Israel an image boost, after allegations of war crimes in the Gaza conflict. "Especially at a time when there are those plotting against us, distorting facts and slandering us, you showed the real face of the Israel Defence Forces," Netanyahu said at an airport ceremony welcoming home the military medical team.

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Why Hamas is denying it targeted civilians in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Erin Cunningham - January 28, 2010 - 1:00am

Ahead of a looming deadline for Israel and Hamas to respond to war crimes charges in the UN-sponsored Goldstone report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) hit back today at a claim made by Hamas earlier this week that its fighters did not commit war crimes in its three-week war with Israel last winter. Instead, said Hamas, its fighters struck civilian areas in Israel “by mistake” when launching rockets at the country’s military installations.

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