Israel closes sole oil and gas terminal on Gaza border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Erin Cunningham - December 7, 2009 - 1:00am

The population of the Gaza Strip is facing an acute cooking gas shortage this winter, after a unilateral Israeli decision in October to permanently close the sole oil and gas terminal between the coastal Palestinian territory and the Jewish state. The Nahal Oz crossing has been shut down for "security reasons," an official with the Israeli coordination office for the Gaza Strip said, adding that it will only act as "a backup" when the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south is too congested.

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World Bank gives Palestinian Authority $64 million
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
December 7, 2009 - 1:00am

The World Bank has given $64 million to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to help it prepare for statehood. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad signed the agreement on Sunday. World Bank official Shamshad Akhtar says the goal is to boost Fayyad's plan to set up institutions for a state within two years, though talks with Israel are stalemated. A World Bank delegation visiting the West Bank and Gaza Strip will also look for ways to ease entry of construction materials into Gaza.

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An-Nasser Brigades: Israeli force attacked near Al-Bureij
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 4, 2009 - 1:00am

The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees announced their launch of a projectile aimed at Israeli forces in central Gaza on Thursday night. An An-Nasser Brigades statement said a mortar shell was launched at a force of Israeli soldiers as they attempted to penetrate the Gaza Strip east of the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp.

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Altogether more than a footnote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Olivia Snaije - December 4, 2009 - 1:00am

The first thing that comes to mind when holding graphic novelist and journalist Joe Sacco’s new book, “Footnotes in Gaza,” is the colossal amount of work that went into it. Not only is this pen-and-ink graphic novel almost 400 pages long, the subject too is heavy: The Israeli military’s massacre of Palestinian civilians in Khan Younis and Rafah (Gaza), during the 1956 Suez Crisis. The Malta-born American researched and reported on the subject for seven years, making two extended trips to Gaza – where he was often under fire from weapons paid for with his tax dollars.

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War zone 2.0
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gwen Ackerman - December 3, 2009 - 1:00am

A new IDF unit formed to help fight the nation's public-relations war is recruiting and training soldiers for the virtual battlefields of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. "The Internet, and especially social networks, Web 2.0 and bloggers, are an increasingly important and powerful way to disseminate information," said Sgt. Aliza Landes, who heads the unit, which was formed in September. "Facebook has the same number of subscribers as the entire population of the US and provides a new opportunity for us to reach audiences we wouldn't reach otherwise," she said.

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Israel: One killed, others injured in airstrike on Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 27, 2009 - 1:00am

The Israeli military confirmed an air attack on the northern Gaza Strip Friday morning which it said killed one Palestinian. Palestinian sources were quoted in Israeli media as confirming that four men were injured, two seriously. Military sources said a group of Palestinians in the Jabaliya region of northern Gaza were preparing to launch projectiles on southern Israel. An army spokeswoman said the slain Palestinian was a member of a group called "Jaljalat" which she described as a Salafist group in Gaza with "ties to Al-Qaeda." The group is not known to operate in Gaza.

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Prisoner Swap Deal Stalled Over One Detainee
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Saleh Al-Naeimi, Nazar Majli - November 24, 2009 - 1:00am

The prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel hinges upon one prisoner that Hamas insists is added to the hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners who will be released in exchange for the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Asharq Al Awsat has learned.

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Israel air strikes in Gaza: Will Hamas rocket truce hold?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Erin Cunningham - November 23, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes against targets across the Gaza Strip Sunday morning, just one day after Hamas announced it had reached an agreement with all Gaza-based militant factions to halt rocket fire into the Jewish state.

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Israeli bombs follow Palestinian rockets
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
November 23, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli aircraft attacked two suspected weapons-making factories and a smuggling tunnel in the Gaza Strip early Sunday in what the military said was retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israel. The airstrikes wounded at least seven people, including one seriously, and came despite an announcement by Gaza's Hamas rulers that the territory's military factions had agreed to stop firing rockets. The Hamas announcement came late Saturday, after the rocket attack.

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Israeli warplanes strike Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 19, 2009 - 1:00am

Gaza/Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli warplanes bombed the Gaza Strip in three locations early on Thursday, according to the country’s military and Palestinians in the coastal Strip. A military spokesperson said the strikes targeted a “weapons manufacturing facility in the southern Gaza Strip and two smuggling tunnels in the Rafah border area.” Sources in Gaza confirmed that two tunnels were bombed, in addition to a facility said to be operated by Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

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