Rights group criticizes Hamas treatment of Israeli
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Matti Friedman - June 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Human Rights Watch charged Friday that Hamas militants are violating the rules of war by prohibiting a captive Israeli soldier from having contact with his family and the Red Cross. The treatment of the 23-year-old soldier, captured exactly four years ago by Hamas, is "cruel and inhuman" and matches a U.N. definition of torture because he is denied any outside contact, the U.S.-based rights group said in a statement.

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Hamas is making ground again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
June 25, 2010 - 12:00am

AFTER three years of campaigning for Israel to lift the siege of Gaza, some of the Islamists ruling the territory are having second thoughts. This week the agriculture minister for Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza, was putting the finishing touches to a ten-year plan to wean it off dependence on Israel and make it self-sufficient in food. Israel’s ban on fertilisers had helped his plan to replace fertiliser with compost made from sewage that otherwise spills into the sea, and turn Gaza into a big organic farm.

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Abbas slams Israeli plan to expel 4 Hamas members
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Dalia Nammari - June 24, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian president warned Thursday that Israel's plan to expel four Hamas politicians from Jerusalem could pose a new obstacle to peace and set a dangerous precedent for expelling Arabs from the disputed city based on their political views. The expulsions of the three Palestinian lawmakers and a former Cabinet minister could start as early as Friday.

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Hamas-run TV stops broadcast on French satellite
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 24, 2010 - 12:00am

The Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV station in Gaza announced that its broadcast through the French-based satellite provider Eutelsat will be forced stop within six hours. "Talks with the French government to call off the ban decision have failed and the order will come into force tonight at 8:00 p.m. local time (1700 GMT)," a press release by the TV station said. France ordered last week that the al-Aqsa Channel not be broadcast through Eutelsat, claiming that the TV incites hatred and violence against Jews and Israel.

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Blackout crisis in Gaza intensifies due to fuel shortage: officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Saud Abu Ramadan, Emad Drimly - June 23, 2010 - 12:00am

The crisis of electricity cutoff in the blockaded Gaza Strip, ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, has recently mounted, where hours of blackout increased due to a severe shortage of industrial fuels used to operate the sole power plant in the salient, Gaza officials said on Tuesday. The mounting crisis would endanger the daily life of the 1.7 million people living in the impoverished territory that has been under a tight Israeli blockade since Hamas seized control of the enclave by force in June 2007, said Suhail Skaik, director of Gaza Electricity Company.

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Hamas: PA continues to detain top members
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority security forces detained two top Hamas affiliates in the West Bank on Monday night, the Islamist movement said The two detained were identified as chief of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV Nawaf Al-Amar and Deputy Nablus Mayor Mahdi Al-Hanbali. A Hamas statement said the two were among 14 Hamas supporters detained by PA forces overnight. In 2007, during the peak of Palestinian political infighting, Al-Hanbali was abducted by Fatah gunmen and held hostage for three days before his release.

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'Waiting for Hamas on Schalit deal'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday spoke up against freeing convicted terrorists into the West Bank in exchange for the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. "We can't release dangerous terrorists to places in the West Bank, where they can kill Israeli citizens," he told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, though he noted, "We're constantly looking for new ways to bring Gilad home safe and sound."

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Lebanon grants permit for blockade-busting ship bound for Gaza to sail to Cyprus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Zeina Karam - June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Another blockade-busting ship with activists and aid on board could embark within days on a new attempt to reach Gaza after Lebanese authorities granted permission Monday for it to sail first to Cyprus. Israeli navy commandos raided a blockade-busting international flotilla bound for Gaza on May 31, killing nine pro-Palestinian activists. An international outcry over the raid pressured Israel to ease its three-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory.

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Hizbullah, Hamas, Iran to meet in Damascus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian opposition factions, Hizbullah officials and a delegation of Iranians, will soon meet in Damascus, the Kuwaiti Al-Anba daily newspaper reported on Monday. The meeting, according to the anonymous source quoted in the paper, will take place in late June, under official Syrian patronage, in an effort to activate resistance in the region in light of an expected Israeli offensive against Iran or against Hizbullah in Lebanon.

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Palestinian politicians reject Israeli deportation order
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Samuel Sockol - June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Four Palestinian politicians affiliated with the Islamist Hamas party on Monday rejected an Israeli order that they relocate to the West Bank. Israel revoked the Jerusalem residency status of the three members of the defunct Palestinian parliament and a former cabinet minister after they refused to resign from their positions and were deemed "disloyal" to the state. The move stripped them of their ability to live in the city legally.

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