Qassam Rocket Attacks | The American Task Force on Palestine

What to Do With Hamas? Question Snarls Peace Bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - October 7, 2009 - 12:00am

In the two years since it seized power here, the militant Hamas movement has undercut the influence of the Gaza Strip's major clans, brought competing paramilitary groups under its control, put down an uprising by a rival Islamist group, weathered a three-week war with Israel, worked around a strict economic embargo -- and through it all refused a set of international demands that could begin Gaza's rehabilitation.

Abbas: Jews spending billions on Jerusalem lands
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

On the backdrop of recent riots in the Old City of Jerusalem, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned against a Jewish takeover of all parts of the capital. According to Abbas, the holy city requires much more effort, attention and dedication from the Arabs in order to deal with the Israeli attempt to change the reality in the city.

Do J'lem clashes, Gaza rockets portend worse violence?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Yaakov Katz, Abe Selig - September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

The Muslim Quarter was quiet on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after clashes between Jerusalem Arabs and border policemen - which began on the Temple Mount Sunday and spread to the surrounding neighborhoods, continuing through Monday night. The recent renewed rocket fire from the Gaza Strip has been rattling nerves in the South as well. But defense officials said that they did not fear a new wave of Palestinian violence on the level of the second intifada. The clashes in Jerusalem and the rocket attacks from Gaza were not connected, they said.

UN scrutinises Gaza 'war crimes'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 29, 2009 - 12:00am

The UN's main human rights watchdog has begun a debate on a damning report into Israel's military operation against Gaza eight months ago. It is seen as a test of US engagement with the Human Rights Council, which was shunned by President George W Bush. The US, which is Israel's main ally, has criticised elements of the report. The report, widely lauded by human rights groups, accuses both Israel and its militant Palestinian adversary Hamas of war crimes in the campaign.

Palestinians seek Barak's arrest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
September 29, 2009 - 12:00am

A group of Palestinian families is attempting to have Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, prosecuted in Britain for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip, lawyers have told Al Jazeera. A lawyer working for the families will present their case at a magistrates court in London on Tuesday before British officials decide if it has the jurisdiction to decide the case. The families are accusing Barak of committing war crimes including the assassination of a senior Palestinian minister and unlawful killing of civilians during the Gaza war at the beginning of this year.

A false equivalency of false equivalencies?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) September 22, 2009 - 12:00am

I get a lot of interesting responses to the postings on the Ibishblog, but those regarding my last posting on the UN Goldstone commission of inquiry into the Gaza war were particularly revealing. Both Arab and Jewish partisans tend to become enraged by any suggestion of equivalency between Israel and any group of Palestinians, particularly when it comes to conflict, warfare and armed struggle. Indeed, both the Israeli government and Hamas condemned the Goldstone report for the sin of "false equivalency," among other things.

IDF bombs Gaza smuggling tunnels
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Air Force jets attacked three smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip late Sunday night, and hits were identified. The IDF Spokesperson's Office stated that the bombing was retaliation for the Qassam rocket fire from Gaza towards southern Israel Saturday night. The bombing was a conclusion to 24 hours of tension at the Gazan border. On Sunday afternoon two Palestinians were killed and four injured from IDF fire near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya.

In Israel's Sderot, a reprieve from rockets, but not fear
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 3, 2009 - 12:00am

During nearly a decade of intermittent attacks from Gaza, Mivtzah Kadesh Street became infamous in this battered town as a frequent target for rockets as well as a bombed-out backdrop for visits from foreign VIPs expressing solidarity. Now, eight months after Israel's Gaza offensive to punish Hamas for attacks, Sderot's wrecked homes have been largely rebuilt. But after eight years of being on constant alert for unpredictable rocket attacks, it has not been as easy for Sderot's 19,000 residents to restore their peace of mind.

Addressing U.S., Hamas Says It Grounded Rockets
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Taghreed El-Khodary - May 5, 2009 - 12:00am

The leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas said Monday that its fighters had stopped firing rockets at Israel for now. He also reached out in a limited way to the Obama administration and others in the West, saying the movement was seeking a state only in the areas Israel won in 1967. “I promise the American administration and the international community that we will be part of the solution, period,” the leader, Khaled Meshal, said during a five-hour interview with The New York Times spread over two days in his home office here in the Syrian capital.

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