PA: Goldstone caved under pressure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - April 3, 2011 - 12:00am

While Israel is overjoyed with Richard Goldstone's change of heart vis-à-vis the report that blamed the Jewish State of committing war crimes during the Gaza war, the Palestinian Authority is furious at the South African judge. In a press release published on Sunday, Nabil Abu Rodeina, the spokesperson to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that Goldstone's comments "do not change the fact that Israel committed a massacre and war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, leaving more than 1,500 Palestinians dead."

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Neither Hamas nor Israel seem to want new war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
March 30, 2011 - 12:00am

After 10 days of strikes and counter-strikes, a sense of calm appeared to have returned to the tense Israeli-Gaza border over the weekend, despite an air strike on Sunday that killed two members of Islamic Jihad's military wing. Gaza's armed groups have agreed to observe a period of calm if Israel reciprocates, but a rocket fell in Israel late on Tuesday, prompting another air strike overnight which killed a third Islamic Jihad militant and threatened to see a return of the tit-for-tat violence.

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Awarta residents DNA tested in Itamar case
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 29, 2011 - 12:00am

The deputy mayor of Awarta and two of his brothers were detained along with dozens of others Tuesday morning by Israeli forces. Officials say the detained men are being given DNA tests and questioned by soldiers. The detentions come as the investigation into the murders of five Israeli settlers - including two children and an infant - enters its third week. More than 40 had been detained from the village in the first week of the investigation, and foreign workers in the settlement were said to have been questioned.

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Report: Dozens of Palestinians arrested in connection to Itamar murders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
March 29, 2011 - 12:00am

Dozens of Palestinians were arrested and given DNA tests in the West Bank town of Awarta in connection to the recent murder of five family members in the nearby settlement of Itamar, Ma'an News Agency reported on Tuesday. Earlier this month, suspected terrorists entered the West Bank settlement of Itamar and murdered Udi and Ruth Fogel, along with three of their young children, including their three-month-old baby, before fleeing the scene. Ma'an reported that among those arrested was the deputy mayor of Awarta and two of his brothers.

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Two Palestinians killed in Israeli strike in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Another Palestinian died on Sunday hours after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza Strip, which had killed one of his colleagues and injured two others, witnesses and medical sources said. The 26-year-old Palestinian had spent half an hour at the hospital's morgue before people found he was still breathing and took him back to the operation room. He died shortly afterwards. Israeli pilotless drones had fired a missile at a car carrying activists, killing one on the spot, wounding one seriously and two others moderately.

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Abbas, Fayyad condemn Jerusalem bombing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 24, 2011 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday condemned a bombing attack in central Jerusalem that killed one woman and injured dozens, the official Palestinian Authority news agency reported. Salam Fayyad, the resigned caretaker prime minister, said in a statement, "I condemn in the strongest terms possible the terrorist attack in Jerusalem today regardless of who is behind it." He also wished a speedy recovery to those who were injured.

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Gazans count cost of escalating violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
by Jon Donnison - March 24, 2011 - 12:00am

"Why is Palestinian blood cheaper than Israeli blood?" asks Wael Abu Awema, a 40-year-old father of five. There have been Israeli attacks on Gaza every day this week. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed, including at least four civilians, two of them children. More than 30 Palestinians have been injured. "Of course we are worried. My kids are wetting themselves at night when they hear the Israeli air strikes," says Mr Abu Awema. His eyes are bloodshot and red, as if he also might be losing sleep.

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ANALYSIS-Bloodshed fills Mideast peace talk vacuum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Douglas Hamilton - March 23, 2011 - 12:00am

Lethal strikes in Gaza and a deadly suitcase bomb in Jerusalem on Wednesday confirmed fears that violence between Israelis and Palestinians is on the rise again after nearly two years of relative calm. Virtually ignored for the past three months as the neighbouring Arab world plunged into turmoil, the 62-year-old Middle East conflict has slid quickly back into its familiar cycle of bloody attack, retaliation and counter-attack. Nine Palestinians and one Israeli have died since Tuesday.

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We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Conflict
In Print by Hussein Ibish - Foreign Policy (Opinion) - March 23, 2011 - 12:00am

The spread of conflict and violence across the Middle East is dampening widespread hopes of an "Arab Spring" that followed the peaceful ousters of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Anti-government demonstrations in Bahrain have taken on an increasingly bitter sectarian character, especially with the military intervention of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the uprising in Libya has degenerated into an all-out civil war compounded by an international no-fly zone intervention.

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UN's Serry condemns killing of civilians in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 23, 2011 - 12:00am

The UN's envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry on Tuesday condemned Israel's killing of civilians in Gaza. On Tuesday afternoon, an Israeli tank fired at a family playing football outside their home in the eastern part of the Ash-Shaja’iya neighborhood in Gaza City. The Israeli military said it regretted harm to innocent civilians, but blamed Hamas, who it said operated in civilian areas. In a statement issued by his spokesman, Serry condemned the attack and expressed concern at the escalating situation in Gaza and southern Israel.

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