Gov't financial crisis influences Ramadan's atmosphere in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Emad Drimly - July 28, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Although markets in the Gaza Strip have been full of goods three days before Ramadan, the fasting month, prosperity still seems absent in the coastal enclave as the goods prices are relatively lower than the previous years, merchants said Thursday. The limit purchasing in the markets comes as both the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) government in the West Bank and the deposed government of Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, are going through a severe financial crisis, which led them to delay the payment for their employees' salaries.

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2 convicted collaborators executed in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 26, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The government in the Gaza Strip announced Tuesday that two residents accused of collaborating with the Israeli occupation have been executed. Gaza's Interior Ministry told Ma'an that execution orders were issued in 2004 and were postponed several times until the crimes of the accused could be thoroughly proven. The two prisoners were executed on Tuesday morning. They were not identified.

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News Analysis: Gaza Strip may witness more violence between Israel, militant groups: analysts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Emad Drimly, Osama Radi - July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian observers believe that the Gaza Strip may witness more escalation of violence soon between Israel and Gaza militant groups following around one week of tit-for-tat escalation that the coastal enclave had witnessed between the two sides. During this week, Israeli F-16 war jets carried out a series of intensive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which targeted smuggling tunnels underneath the borders between the enclave and Egypt, where three Palestinians were killed and 25 others, most of them civilians, were wounded.

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FEATURE-Wife battering, sexual abuse get attention in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - July 20, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA, July 20 (Reuters) - Most safe-houses in the Gaza Strip are meant to provide protection for armed militants on Israel's target list. Now Gaza is offering protected shelter to battered Palestinian women. Its lone women's safe-house, opened two months ago, has had eight clients, all guarded by police from the Islamist Hamas movement that runs the enclave and enforces a conservative though not radical Muslim religious code.

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Israeli navy takes over Gaza-bound ship
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli naval commandos on Tuesday seized control of a French ship attempting to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, reporting no resistance during the takeover in international waters. The navy boarded the ship after the pro-Palestinian activists on board ignored calls to change course. The military had warned it would stop any attempt to break the sea blockade of Gaza, which Israel imposed four years ago in what it says is a measure to prevent arms smuggling to Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group.

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GAZA STRIP: Israeli military warns Gazans in leaflet drop
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Rushdi Abu Alouf - July 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over the Gaza Strip for the first time since the end of a 22-day assault more than two years ago. The leaflets, dropped late Sunday and early Monday, written in Arabic and signed by the "Israel Defense Forces," warned residents not to come near the border with Israel in the northern part of the territory, witnesses said. The leaflets warned citizens against approaching within 300 yards of the border. "Anyone approaching the buffer zone will put himself in danger," one leaflet read.

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Hamas: No Palestinian reconciliation if Fayyad remains PM
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Associated Press - July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

A senior Hamas official said a planned reconciliation with Fatah will be deeply threatened if the rival Palestinian movement insists Western-backed economist Salam Fayyad stays on as prime minister. President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah thinks keeping Fayyad as prime minister is key to maintaining the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid. Hamas sees Fayyad as too close to the West. Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk was quoted Wednesday by the Palestinian daily Felesteen as saying Abbas' position is "unacceptable and unreasonable."

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Hamas arrests man for styling women's hair
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
July 6, 2011 - 12:00am

The Hamas government in Gaza has arrested a man for violating a recent legislation that prohibits men from styling women's hair, the BBC reported Wednesday. The report said that following the arrest, many male hairstylists could be found loitering at the entrance to their salons, terrified of being detained as well. Last year Hamas officially announced a new law prohibiting men from styling women's hair, as it negates Sharia.

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Israel Determined to Keep Pressure on Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Arieh O'Sullivan - July 5, 2011 - 12:00am

As it maintains its isolation of the Hamas rulers, Israel has been working to boost the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Gaza Strip by gradually supporting its projects there. “I believe our current policy to work with international organizations and support the Palestinian Authority’s projects in Gaza, plus our efforts to weaken Hamas, are the way to bring about the real change in Gaza,” said Maj.-Gen. Eitan Dangot, Israel’s government coordinator for activities in the West Bank and Gaza. But, he stressed: We have no desire to ever return to the Gaza Strip.”

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The U.S. may be heading toward talks with Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) July 3, 2011 - 12:00am

How would Israel respond if a "senior American official" were to declare that the United States was prepared to speak with Hamas leadership?

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