Egypt-Hamas standoff leads to Gaza power crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Karin Laub - March 22, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A dispute between Egypt and Gaza's Hamas government has produced the worst energy crisis here in years: Gazans are enduring 18-hour-a-day blackouts, fuel is running low for hospital backup generators, raw sewage pours into the Mediterranean Sea for lack of treatment pumps and gas stations have shut down. The fuel and electricity shortages, which have escalated over the past two months, are infuriating long-suffering Gazans who say their basic needs, perhaps more than ever, are being sacrificed for politics.

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Israel Indicts Hamas Militant Suspected in Kidnap and Suicide Bombing Plot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel’s internal security service says a Palestinian militant has been indicted in an alleged plot to capture an Israeli soldier and carry out a suicide bombing. The Shin Bet service said Wednesday that Mohammed Abu Adra of the militant Hamas group was arrested in February while trying to infiltrate Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. It accused him of being involved in planning the capture of an Israeli soldier and a suicide bombing in the southern city of Eilat. He was indicted Wednesday on charges including conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to kidnap.


Hamas: Fatah Prefers US Dollars to National Agreements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Fatah has not implemented any of its reconciliation commitments because it prefers American money to national agreements, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government in Gaza said Monday. Taher al-Nunu said in a statement that Fatah is trying to destroy the reconciliation agreement it signed with Hamas last May. Al-Nunu's remarks were made in response to comments by senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad, who said Hamas was responsible for the ongoing delay in forming a unity government.

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Hamas Denies Reports of Iranian Experts Aiding Militants
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA, March 20 (Xinhua) -- A senior Hamas official on Tuesday denied media reports saying that Iranian military experts were helping Gaza militant groups to develop weapons and upgrade their capabilities for a future confrontation with Israel. "These reports are fabricated and aim to justify (Israeli) military aggression against Gaza," Mahmoud Zahar, a member of Hamas' politburo, told Xinhua. On Monday, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that some Iranian experts were in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to help the militant groups based in the coastal enclave.

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Palestinian Transformations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Elias Harfoush - (Opinion) March 18, 2012 - 12:00am

The times are different for Gaza, and they are different for Hamas. And just as the recent confrontation in the Gaza Strip represented a new test of the ability of Israel’s offensives to inflict human casualties and material damage among the ranks of the Palestinians, as if we needed further Palestinian bloodshed to discover this, it also represented a test for the Islamist movement and for its courageous hesitation to move forward in taking the risk of such a costly confrontation.

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Turkey’s Erdogan to Discuss Palestinian Reconciliation Efforts with Hamas’ Exiled Leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
March 16, 2012 - 12:00am

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s prime minister is meeting Hamas’ chief Khaled Mashaal to discuss reconciliation efforts between the rival Palestinian factions. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he would be discussing developments concerning Palestinian unity in Ankara on Friday with Hamas’ top leader in exile. Reconciliation efforts between Hamas — shunned by the West as a terror group — and Fatah continue, but they have encountered new obstacles.

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Open Letter to Hamas: You Are Responsible for Your People's Fate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) March 15, 2012 - 12:00am

The last days have brought another round of violence between Gaza and Israel. Most commentators assume that neither Hamas nor Israel in interested in further escalation of the hostilities that have been initiated by Islamic Jihad this time, ostensibly to jockey for position vis-à-vis Hamas. Iron Dome has prevented casualties on Israel's side, but it has almost paralyzed life in Southern Israel. So far the death toll in Gaza is 26, and we can only hope that it will not rise any further.

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Hamas No Longer Major Player in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - (Analysis) March 14, 2012 - 12:00am

Hailing the latest Egyptian-brokered truce as an “achievement,” Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, the two groups who were behind the rocket and mortar attacks on Israel, have proven that Hamas is no longer the major player in the Gaza Strip. As of this week, Hamas will have to live with the fact that these two groups pose a challenge to the Islamist movement’s control over the Gaza Strip.

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A Journalist's Battle with Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by George Hale - (Opinion) March 14, 2012 - 12:00am

Several prominent critics of Hamas have departed the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, relocating abroad nearly one year since grassroots activists launched a popular movement to democratize Palestinian politics and re-unite the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The failure of the so-called March 15 movement to end the division between Fatah and Hamas has wreaked havoc on freedom of speech and the press for residents of the occupied territories, who continue to be ruled by rival regimes. The news agency I work for, Maan, is no exception.

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Hamas May Become Viable Negotiating Partner
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv
by Nachman Shai - (Opinion) March 14, 2012 - 12:00am

In the present confrontation between Israel and the Popular Resistance Committees, Israel has been treading very carefully. As of the writing of these lines, we have been very fortunate. The cutting-edge technological systems developed by Israel have been doing their jobs in the best possible manner. Regarding the offensive-attack perspective, Israeli drones have struck targets on the ground with surgical precision based on reliable intelligence information. They have succeeded in stopping missiles from being fired with minimal harm to innocent bystanders.

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