Hamas is accused of being moderate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas, the Palestinian faction viewed by many in the West as a nest of terrorists and Islamic hard-liners, is battling a curious new epithet: moderate. Fifteen months after a punishing Israeli offensive failed to dislodge Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip, rival resistance groups and some former supporters say the organization has become too political, too secular and too soft.

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Mashaal vows to capture more soldiers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
April 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The leader of Hamas has vowed to capture more Israeli soldiers to use in bargaining for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Khaled Mashaal accused Israel of obstructing a deal to trade captured soldier Gilad Schalit for hundreds of jailed terrorists. Gaza militants captured Schalit in a 2006 cross-border raid. A deal brokered by Egypt and Germany for his release had appeared close in November.

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Mash'al: Hamas won't recognize Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas leader Khalid Mash'al said Monday that Arab officials had urged the movement to accept the International Quartet's conditions and recognize Israel in exchange for amendments to the Egyptian-backed unity deal. "Whoever asks us to recognize Israel will be disappointed," Mash'al, the senior-most Hamas leader said during a speech marking a week of Prisoners Day activities in Damascus, where he has lived since his August 1999 expulsion from Jordan.

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Gazans imposed "unreasonable taxes" as Hamas passes fiscal crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Saud Abu Ramadan - April 20, 2010 - 12:00am

A'ahed al-Shawa, a 31-year-old meat vendor, who owns a butcher shop in western Gaza City, was shocked when representatives of the Hamas-ruled municipality informed him that he has to pay annual taxes for placing his grill machine outside his shop. "They asked me to pay 1,500 Israeli new shekels (404 U.S. dollars) every year for putting my grill meat machine outside my store," al-Shawa said, adding "I have never paid such kind of new unreasonable taxes before, either to Israel or to the Palestinian (National) Authority."

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New Gaza Salafist faction numbers 11,000
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Ibrahim Qannan - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

"We, the Salafists, count more than 11,000 members who carry with them jihadist teachings from both Ayman At-Thawahri and Osama Bin Laden," said Abu Al-Hareth, leader of the Jund Ansar Allah, during an interview in his poorly lit Gaza home. "Of this number, 70 percent are members of the Jaljalat, a group made up of former Al-Qassam Brigades and Hamas affiliates," he explained.

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Abbas calls on prisoners to press for unity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on prisoners on Sunday to press the factions to reconcile and achieve national unity. Once again, the prisoners should exert pressure on everybody to make national unity, Abbas said when receiving families of prisoners at his office in Ramallah, a day after Palestinians marked the Prisoners' Day. In 2006, the Palestinian prisoners drafted a plan supporting Saud Arabia's efforts in the formation of a unity government. However, the government collapsed in June 2007 after ruling for three months owing to Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza.

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Hamas vows to continue executions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas) will continue executing collaborators and people convicted of serious crimes in the Gaza Strip, Hamas interior minister Fathi Hammad said Monday. "Executions would be carried out against anybody trying to stand on the way of the people or trying to contact the Zionist enemy and convey information to it," Hammad told a press conference in Gaza city. "The government won't step back implementing executions against those who harmed our national interests."

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Hamas…and Sanitation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) April 18, 2010 - 12:00am

According to what was reported by Israeli Army Radio a few days ago, a delegation of experts and engineers affiliated to Hamas's so-called government in Gaza visited Israel in secret around two and a half months ago "with the goal of benefiting from Israel expertise in the field of wastewater treatment and turning this into potable drinking water." For its part, Hamas quickly denied this, which was expected and something that we have gotten used to from previous secret visits to Israel, particularly as there have been many such visits.

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'Collaborator' executions heighten political tensions in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Janine Zacharia - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am

The Gaza Strip's Hamas-led government on Thursday executed two Palestinians convicted of aiding Israel in the assassination of Palestinian militants, a move that highlighted the deep divisions that endure between the two main Palestinian political factions.

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Gaza executions condemned
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups have denounced Thursday's executions of two collaborators in Gaza. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reiterated in a statement its position rejecting the death penalty, which it called "a grave and unjustified violation of the right to life and a form of torture and cruel and inhumane treatment." The Ministry of the Interior in Gaza executed by firing squad Nasser Salama Abu Fraih, 35, from Jabaliya and Mohammed Ibrahim Isma'il (As-Sabe), 36, from Rafah.

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