August 14th

Fatah Fugitives In Limbo At Israel-gaza Border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-mughrabi - August 14, 2008 - 4:28pm GAZA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - A patch of sand dunes on the Gaza Strip frontier, within view of Israeli border patrols, is all the haven that eight Palestinians on the run from Hamas have. The men, members of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction who escaped a July 25 raid by Hamas police, had hoped that Israel would allow them out of the blockaded coastal territory and on to the relative safety of the occupied West Bank. » Read more

Olmert Rejects Return Of Any Palestinian Refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters August 14, 2008 - 4:27pm JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel will not allow the return of any Palestinian refugees as part of a future statehood deal, Olmert's office said on Thursday. The rare official statement was issued in response to reports Olmert proposed absorbing 2,000 refugees per year for 10 years as part of an agreement to establish a Palestinian state in most of the occupied West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip. » Read more

Palestinian National Poet Laid To Rest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times August 14, 2008 - 4:26pm RAMALLAH (AP) - Poet Mahmoud Darwish, who gave a voice to the Palestinians' longing for independence, was buried Wednesday in a pomp-filled ceremony fit for a head of state. Thousands marched behind the casket, draped in a Palestinian flag and covered with wreaths, as it was driven through Ramallah in a black pickup truck. Uniformed officers sat to either side of the casket and many in the crowd waved Palestinian flags. Huge posters of Darwish were draped across Ramallah's main square. » Read more

Media Criticise Gaza Death Ruling ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News August 14, 2008 - 4:25pm Reuters news agency says the Israeli army has made reporting in Gaza "almost impossible" after it cleared a tank crew that killed one of its cameramen. Fadel Shana and eight other Palestinian civilians, mostly children, were killed by a shell packed with darts in April. The army's top lawyer said the troops acted properly as they suspected his camera tripod was an anti-tank weapon. Reuters says it shows the army is not meeting an obligation to protect civilians in combat areas. » Read more

August 13th

Settlers Vow To Fight Pm's Plan To Quit West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nadav Shragai - August 13, 2008 - 4:47pm The "shelf agreement" that the Israeli government has proposed to the Palestinian Authority, whose details were released Sunday, would leave within Israel some 220,000 settlers living in 48 settlements in settlements blocs. This area, west of the separation fence, more-or-less overlaps the seven percent of land in Judea and Samaria that Israel will annex according to the "shelf agreement." » Read more

Barak: Heavy Price For Shalit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yonat Atlas - August 13, 2008 - 4:43pm Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday evening that he does not know how long the ceasefire with Gaza's terror groups will hold. Therefore the period of relative calm, he said, "should be used to strengthen the civilian infrastructure and fortification of Sderot and the Gaza-vicinity communities." Barak added that the time should also be used to push forward with the negotiations to secure the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. » Read more

Palestinian: Settlers Tied My Son To Atv, Dragged Him Through Olive Grove ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - August 13, 2008 - 4:41pm A Palestinian resident of Ras KarKar, a West Bank village located near Modiin, claimed Wednesday that a Jewish settler tied his 17-year-old son to an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and dragged him through an olive grove. According to Hafez Nupal, on Monday at around 6 pm he and his son were working in their fields when two settlers riding an ATV approached. "One of them yelled 'what are you doing on this land? God gave us this land and no Arab dog will set foot on it'," he recounted. » Read more

Palestinian Teen Caught With Pipe Bombs, Knife At Hawara Checkpoint ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Erfat Weiss - August 13, 2008 - 4:39pm IDF soldiers detained Wednesday a 16-year-old Palestinian at the Hawara checkpoint, located south of Nablus in the West Bank, after he was found to be carrying two pipe bombs and a pocketknife. The teen was turned over to security forces for further questioning. The pipe bombs were detonated by military sappers. Over the past few years the IDF has thwarted numerous attempts to smuggle explosives and weapons through the Hawara checkpoint. » Read more

Palestinian Saga Personified ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Osama Al-sharif - August 13, 2008 - 4:36pm MAHMUD Darwish, the renowned Palestinian poet ho died in Houston on Saturday after an unsuccessful heart operation, aged 67, often joked about his close brush with death. In 1998 he underwent a major heart surgery in Paris, more than 14 years after his first coronary, which nearly cost him his life. But he recovered and went on to write poetry and prose that reiterated his status as one of the most talented and popular poets in the Arab world in the last 50 years. » Read more

Hamas, Israel Cooperate To Ease Gaza Blockade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times by Sana Abdallah - August 13, 2008 - 4:35pm AMMAN -- The Palestinian Hamas movement seems to have realized that the punishment inflicted by Israel on Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians has been much too severe since it seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, and is now publicly blasting militants who fire rockets at Israel in violation of a truce as traitors. Israel on Tuesday closed the Nahal Oz crossing, the transit point for fuel into Gaza, and the Sufa passage for food deliveries, a day after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into an empty field outside the southern Israeli town of Sderot, causing no casualties o » Read more