Israeli boy Daniel Viflic dies after rocket hits bus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Daniel Viflic, 16, was on a school bus in southern Israel on 7 April when it was hit by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip. The driver was slightly hurt in the attack, which happened just after the other children had been dropped off. Nineteen Palestinians died in the ensuing wave of Israeli air strikes and Palestinian counter-attacks. It was the most serious violence since Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009. About 1,400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, including 10 soldiers, were killed.


Gaza police identify murder suspects
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Gaza police on Monday released the photos of four men identified as the prime suspects in the murder of Italian activist and journalist Vittorio Arrigoni. Police said the four were currently fugitives, and apparently in hiding. The four were identified as Abdul-Rahman Al-Breizat, Mahmoud Muhammad Nimir Salfiti, Muhammad Al-Breizat, and Bilal Al-Umari. Police did not say whether any of the men were affiliated with a political, religious or military group in the coastal enclave. Two men detained earlier were not directly involved in the murder, police said.

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Gaza Killing of Italian Activist Deals a Blow to Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

For Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian pro-Palestinian activist who friends said fought peacefully for justice, the end was as violent as it was incongruous. Police officers from Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, found his body in a house in Gaza City that was empty of furniture, except for the mattress on which the body was lying, according to witnesses. The doctor who performed the autopsy said Mr. Arrigoni’s killers had used a plastic cord to strangle him.

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Awarta stunned over Itamar attack revelation; 'They're just kids'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - April 17, 2011 - 12:00am

Following Sunday's revelations with regards to the arrest of two Palestinians from the village of Awarta for the murder of the Fogel family in the Itamar massacre last March, villagers in Awarta, the village adjacent to the settlement of Itamar, were stunned to discover that two teens, Hakim Mazen Awad (18) and Amjad Mohammad Awad (19) are the main murder suspects.

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Itamar attack: 'My son was tortured into confessing'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - April 17, 2011 - 12:00am

The families of the two terrorists who confessed to murdering five members of the Fogel family refuse to believe the two committed the massacre. Hakim Awad's mother, Nawef, claimed that her son was at home the night of the murder and never left the house. "Five months ago Hakim underwent a surgery in his stomach and I'm sure he was tortured and forced into confessing." The mother claimed that Israel was trying to cover up for crimes it committed in Awarta last month and noted that their home in the village was very far from the settlement of Itamar.

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Goldstone, the person and the process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) April 16, 2011 - 12:00am

Controversy is good, if it helps to promote truth and justice, and this is what we have now in relation to the 2010 “Goldstone Report” about the conduct of Israel and Hamas during the 2008-09 Gaza war. It continues to generate fresh controversy in light of recent statements by the four members of the original fact-finding commission established by the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

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Hamas is Missing the Train of History
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Blog) April 15, 2011 - 12:00am

The extremist Islamist ‘Monotheism and Holy War Group’ has gruesomely murdered an Italian peace activist, Vittorio Arrigoni briefly after kidnapping him. This seems to have been retaliation against Hamas’ detention of two of its leaders a few days ago, even though it was first presented as an attempt to force Hamas to release the organization’s leaders. This shows, more than ever, that Hamas is running into insoluble problems.

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Hamas Says It Found Body of Italian Activist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram - April 15, 2011 - 12:00am

An Italian activist found dead here early Friday was strangled with a plastic cord, apparently by abductors from a radical Islamic organization inspired by Al Qaeda that said it had kidnapped him a day earlier, according to a physician who performed an autopsy. Vittorio Arrigoni taking part in March in a protest against gainst an Israeli decision to tighten the border area in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza strip.

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Palestinian factions denounce murder of Italian activist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian factions have condemned the murder of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni found dead in Gaza early Friday morning. Salafist extremists in Gaza were suspected of kidnapping Arrigoni, an activist for the International Solidarity Movement, last seen alive in a video posted online Thursday. In the video, the kidnappers threatened to kill Arrigoni unless Hamas released Salafist prisoners by Friday evening. Before the deadline passed, however, Hamas said his body was found hanged in a home northwest of Gaza City.

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GAZA STRIP: Kidnapped Italian activist found dead; Hamas condemns rival radical group
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Ahmed al-Dabba - (Blog) April 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Hours after an Islamist extremist group announced it had kidnapped an Italian peace activist in the Gaza Strip, the man's body was discovered in the restive seaside territory. It was the first kidnapping of a Westerner in four years and one of the few times such an abduction has ended fatally.

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