Israel Refuses Blair Request to Up Electricity to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has balked at a request to boost the amount of electricity it supplies to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on grounds that it didn’t want to cooperate with “a terror organization.” Quartet Representative Tony Blair made the request Monday to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, Blaire’s spokesman confirmed to The Media Line.

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Gaza Mall Seeks to Make Statement of Resolve
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Colognes by Hugo Boss, Dunhill and Givenchy line the shelves of the cosmetics shop. One of the two women’s clothing stores features a window mannequin in a hot pink T-shirt and low-slung jeans. In the supermarket freezer is Nestlé ice cream and on its shelves are salty and cheesy chips and doodles that well-off societies consume by the bagful. Gaza, famous for its misery, has a shopping mall. It opened a month ago to considerable fanfare, with Palestinian television cameras trailing Hamas government officials meandering proudly around the bright new stores filled with imported goods.

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Report Criticizes Gaza Restrictions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Kamal Sweleim’s family has owned a farm in this northern part of Gaza for six decades. For most of that time, it was a mix of citrus orchards and plump cows, and the family made a handsome living selling its products to Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. But 10 years ago, when the second Palestinian uprising broke out, spreading violence in Israeli streets, Israeli tanks started repeatedly tearing through the family’s fields, chasing militants. Last year, during the Israeli war in Gaza, the Sweleims were ordered to move out, and their trees and wells were bulldozed.

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World Bank grants $5 million to PA to train primary teachers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 17, 2010 - 12:00am

The World Bank will provide the Palestinian Authority $5 million to fund the Teacher Education Improvement Project, a statemenet read, after the deal was signed last Wednesday by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Dina Abu-Ghaida, Acting World Bank Country Director for West Bank and Gaza (WBG).

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Hamas Blames Israel for Mail Embargo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel is imposing a postal blockade on Gaza, officials in the Hamas government have claimed, calling on the international community to intervene. Yousef Al-Mansi, Hamas Minister of Communications and Information Technology, called Monday for the Universal Postal Union and international human rights groups to intervene and pressure Israel into allowing mail to enter and exit the Gaza Strip.

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Settlers and Palestinians remember 2005 Gaza pullout
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Paul Wood - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Neve Dekalim was once the largest Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. Now it is mostly sand and rubble. Palestinian trucks are taking away the last of what remains of the Jewish homes, to use as building material. The evictions from Neve Dekalim took place five years ago today under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan. In all, some 9,000 Israelis were evacuated from 21 Jewish settlements. Celia Goldstein, a British-born settler, was one of the last to leave Neve Dekalim.

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For Hamas, an end to Gaza's tunnel trade may be only the beginning
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Liam Stack - August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Under the watchful eyes of both Egyptian border guards and Hamas tax collectors, more than 1,000 tunnels snake below the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Since Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas took control in 2007, the tunnels underneath Rafah, a chaotic border town, have helped bring in everything from snack food and cement to a lion for the zoo. Without this underground highway system, Gazans say they would not have survived the past three years of sanctions.

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Gaza girls turn to fishing to feed family
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Google News
by Adel Zaanoun - August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Every morning the two girls wake up before dawn, row their wooden skiff out into Gaza's heavily-patrolled waters, and try to catch enough fish to feed their family. They are perhaps the only women in the territory of 1.5 million people who make a living from fishing, and are a rare sight in Gaza's conservative society where women rarely venture into the sea even to swim. But Madeleine Kulab, 16, and her sister Reem, 13, have had few other options since their father was struck with palsy 10 years ago, and like many women in Gaza have had to work for wages once earned by men.

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In the midst of Gaza's calamity lies an opportunity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Joseph Mayton - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am

Beyond the most obvious hardships brought about by the Gaza blockade, there is another less commonly discussed environmental calamity in the making that could have terrible long-term implications. According to the United Nations Environment Program, the blockade on the Strip is causing severe water shortages and preventing farmers from tilling their land, leading to environmental damage that could take decades to repair.

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Israel allows 250 trucks into Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel facilitated the transfer of 250 trucks with supplies to the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time since the government eased up restrictions on the amount and type of merchandise allowed into the Hamas-controlled territory. In late June, Israel announced that it would ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip after it came under pressure following the naval raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla. The trucks made their way into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

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