January 1st

Gaza war anniversary: How one group helps victims overcome trauma ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - December 28, 2009 - 1:00am Jerusalem — Rawya Hamam was watching her son deteriorate. Hisham wouldn't sleep, clung to her incessantly, and said he wanted to go back into her belly so he'd be safe. "Grandma is lucky she died so she doesn't have to live here now," the boy told his mother. » Read more

In reversal, Egypt allows some foreign activists to enter Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor December 31, 2009 - 1:00am Cairo, Egypt — Egypt has allowed 84 pro-Palestinian foreign activists to march to Gaza, which is under an Israeli-led blockade, an Egyptian official in the North Sinai governorate said. Some 1,400 activists from 43 countries had gathered in Cairo since Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the Israeli three-week offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Egypt said 100 activists would be allowed to pass through. » Read more

In sharp contrast with Gaza, casualties decline in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Howard Schneider, Samuel Sockol - January 1, 2010 - 1:00am JERUSALEM -- The first year in a decade without a suicide bombing, as well as an expanded Palestinian security force, resulted in a decline in the number of Israeli and Palestinian casualties in the occupied West Bank in 2009 -- a contrast to the hundreds of Palestinian lives claimed by last winter's war in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. » Read more

Hundreds Demonstrate on Border With Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - December 31, 2009 - 1:00am JERUSALEM — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on both sides of the Israeli-Gazan border on Thursday to mark a year since Israel’s three-week war in Gaza, and to call for an end to the blockade of the area imposed by Israel and Egypt. About 85 of the several hundred demonstrators inside Gaza were foreigners, part of a group of more than 1,000 who arrived in Cairo in hopes of entering the territory but who were stopped by the Egyptian authorities. After days of negotiation, Egypt permitted a small delegation to cross the normally closed border at the southern Gazan city of Rafah. » Read more