Sources: Iran was forced to withdraw Khamenei invite to Haniyeh
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Informed sources told Ma'an on Monday that Iran's Supreme Leader had asked Gaza premier Ismail Haniyeh to the Non-Aligned summit in Tehran, but Iran was later forced to withdraw the invitation. Haniyeh announced the invitation on Friday, drawing ire from West Bank officials who said President Mahmoud Abbas would pull out if the Hamas premier attended. An Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman later said only Abbas had been invited to represent Palestine. Haniyeh then insisted he had declined the invitation, citing Palestinian unity.

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Israel shells Gaza compounds after rocket attacks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Dan Williams - August 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli forces shelled two compounds run by the Hamas government's security services in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, wounding two Palestinians, Hamas said. Israel described the targets as weapons manufacturing and storage sites and said they were hit in retaliation for recent short-range rocket salvoes launches from the coastal enclave into the Jewish state. Two such salvoes, on Sunday and Monday, caused no casualties and were claimed by ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists who have a presence in Gaza and the neighbouring Egyptian Sinai.

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Gaza Hamas premier drops plan to go to Iran summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
August 26, 2012 - 12:00am

A Hamas official says Gaza's Hamas prime minister has dropped plans to attend this week's summit of Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran. The prospect of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh attending the summit elicited an angry response from the rival Palestinian government in the West Bank. Its foreign minister, Riad Malki, warned he would pull out of the summit and urge other nations to do the same if Haniyeh showed up.

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Hamas top official: Kill every last Jew and American
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
August 24, 2012 - 12:00am

A senior Hamas official said in a televised sermon that he wished for the annihilation of every single Jew and American. The sermon by Sheik Ahmad Bahr, deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was broadcast earlier this month on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV. “Oh, Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters” and “the Americans and their supporters,” he was filmed saying. “Oh, Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one.”

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Hamas’s corruption
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jonathan Schachter - (Opinion) August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The regional standing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist faction born in 1987 as a Muslim Brotherhood splinter group, has undoubtedly been buoyed by the meteoric rise of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. But a potentially bigger factor has been the precipitous decline of its rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority government, led by the secular Fatah faction.

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Hamas security source says three Gazans aid Sinai assailants
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

A Hamas security source said Thursday investigations indicated that three people from the Gaza Strip were involved in the deadly attack against Egyptian soldiers earlier this month in the Sinai Peninsula. The three Palestinians are members of extremist Salafi groups and their whereabouts are unknown, the source said. "Their involvement in the attack was marginal and it is no more than providing technical help," the sources said, adding that most of the assailants were Egyptians and other nationals.

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Hamas calls on Egypt to exclude Israel of any security coordination in Sinai
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 19, 2012 - 12:00am

Ismail Haneya, premier of Islamic Hamas movement's rule in the Gaza Strip, on Sunday called on Egypt to exclude Israelis from any security coordination to control the security in the Peninsula of Sinai. During a speech on Sunday morning to mark Eid al-Fitr, the end of the 30 days of fasting in the holy month of Ramadan, Haneya said security in Sinai has to be controlled through coordination between Egypt and Hamas.

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A building boom
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
(Opinion) August 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Five years after Israel and Egypt closed their gates, the Palestinian strip of land they encircle is rising from the ashes of war and siege. “We’re building cities,” says a delighted UN engineer, putting the finishing touches to “Saudi City”, a public housing estate replete with garages, tiled bathrooms and dishwashers that cost its Saudi sponsors $120m. Built on land where Israel first settled Jews after its 1967 conquest and then removed them in 2005, it is set to open its doors to 11,000 residents in the next few months.

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Hamas arrests terrorist behind June border attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - August 18, 2012 - 12:00am

The Hamas government's security forces have arrested a terrorist who was responsible in part for the attack that killed an Israeli civilian working on Israel's southern border fence in June.

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Hamas helps Egypt in hunt for Sinai terrorists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - August 17, 2012 - 12:00am

Hamas announced Thursday that it was doing its utmost to help the Egyptian authorities capture the terrorists who killed 16 Egyptian border guards in Sinai on August 5. The announcement came as Palestinians in the Gaza Strip reported that Hamas security forces have rounded up a number of suspects belonging to extremist Islamic groups in the context of efforts to solve the case. The statement also came amid reports that Hamas and the Egyptians have formed a joint security committee to investigate the terrorist attack.

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