Gaza detainee treatment 'inhuman'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
January 28, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinians seized during Israel's operation in Gaza faced "appalling" conditions and "inhuman" treatment, Israeli human rights groups have said. The seven groups say they have gathered 20 testimonies which indicate detainees were kept in pits without shelter, toilets or adequate food and water. Some detainees also said they had been held near tanks and in combat areas, the groups said. The Israeli military says it is investigating the allegations.

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Gaza ceasefire of critical importance, says US envoy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ewen Macaskill, Rory McCarthy, Peter Walker - January 28, 2009 - 1:00am

A continued ceasefire in Gaza is of "critical importance", Barack Obama's Middle East peace envoy, George Mitchell said today, as Israeli jets bombed smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border amid the worst violence in the territory since a truce began 10 days ago. Mitchell arrived in Israel this afternoon after talks in Cairo with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. In Jerusalem, he held talks with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, and was due to meet the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, before travelling to the West Bank to see the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

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Hamas and the Firewood of Victory
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Jameel Theyabi - January 26, 2009 - 1:00am

Now that the offensive is over, we have the right to write bitterly about what we have seen and heard with respect to the tragedies of the "heinous" Israeli war on the Gazans, especially since the uncontrollable inter-Palestinian verbal battle has returned to the television screens and newspapers even prior to the end of the war.

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EU aid chief in Gaza condemns Israel and Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
January 26, 2009 - 1:00am

The EU's foreign aid chief visited Gaza on Monday and condemned its Islamist rulers Hamas for acting like "a terrorist movement", while criticizing Israel's offensive and appealing to the Jewish state to let in more aid.

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Did Israel Commit War Crimes in Gaza?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Speigel International
by Thomas Darnstadt, Christoph Schult - January 26, 2009 - 1:00am

Did Israel violate international law in Gaza? The immense number of Palestinian civilian casualties suggests that it did. But can the laws of war really be applied to asymmetrical conflicts such as Israel's war with Hamas? The Palmachim air force base is 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of Tel Aviv, tucked away in the dunes along the Mediterranean shore. A thin, bald man wearing rectangular, rimless glasses is standing in front of half a dozen combat helicopters on the airfield at the base.

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Israel 'must sack' military rabbi
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
January 26, 2009 - 1:00am

A human rights group in Israel has called for the military's chief rabbi to be dismissed for alleged incitement against Palestinians. The group, Yesh Din, said Rabbi Avichai Rontzki distributed a booklet to troops in the Gaza offensive, which advised them they were fighting "murderers". The booklet, citing an ultra-nationalist rabbi, told soldiers to show no mercy to a "cruel enemy". The Israeli military has not yet commented on the issue.

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A Flurry of Tunnel Repairs Is Underway in Gaza's South
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jonathan Finer - January 25, 2009 - 1:00am

While the neighborhoods of Gaza remain in ruins, and tens of thousands of residents still lack water and power, reconstruction of its more illicit infrastructure was well underway Saturday in this bustling town on the Egyptian border. A Caterpillar backhoe bored into the sandy earth. Generators rumbled under the cover of tattered white tents. And above and below ground, teams of workers set about restoring the warren of smuggling tunnels that the Israeli air assault had sought to destroy.

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The Bullets in My In-Box
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - January 24, 2009 - 1:00am

Faisal Husseini, a Palestinian leader who died at the start of this decade, used to tell a story about his first visit to Israel. The 1967 war had just ended, borders were suddenly opened and he took a drive to Tel Aviv, where at some point he found himself detained by an Israeli policeman. Questions and answers ensued. At one point the policeman said to him, “As a proud Zionist, I must tell you ....” At which Mr. Husseini burst out laughing.

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No Home to Return to in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Griff Witte - January 23, 2009 - 1:00am

When members of the Sultan family ran from their home as an Israeli tank shelled its northern wall, there was no time to shut the front door. There was also no need. The house, which family patriarch Samir al-Sultan began building at the age of 15, was all but destroyed as Israeli forces advanced into the Gaza Strip in early January, turning the house's contents into a mangled mess of glass and mortar. With no home to return to and no prospects for rebuilding, the Sultans on Thursday were among the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza searching for somewhere to go.

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As Obama Visits State Dept., Clinton Announces Two Special Envoys
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Karen Deyoung, Glenn Kessler - January 23, 2009 - 1:00am

President Obama traveled to the State Department yesterday afternoon for a visit that was as rich in symbolism as in substance, underscoring his pledge to give top priority to diplomacy as he outlined an activist policy in the Middle East and warned that "difficult days lie ahead" in Afghanistan.

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