Fatah, Hamas to discuss unity government Sunday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 7, 2013 - 1:00am

Fatah and Hamas officials will meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the composition of a unity government, Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said Thursday. Leaders of the major Palestinian parties are already in the Egyptian capital ahead of series of meeting designed to hammer out the details of the long-stalled 2011 reconciliation agreement. A joint government to oversee fresh elections and reunite the West Bank and Gaza is a key component of the deal.

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Gaza rights groups question police use of force
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 6, 2013 - 1:00am

Human rights groups in the Gaza Strip are calling for authorities to investigate police use of force against civilians after the death of a suspected drug trafficker last week. Atiya Suleiman Qishta, 41, was killed on Saturday after he was shot in the back by an anti-drug unit of the Gaza police force. Police sources told the Palestinian Center for Human Rights that eight officers laid an ambush for the car as part of an attempted drug bust, but when Qishta stepped out of the vehicle he refused police orders to stop and attempted to flee.

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The Death of Cinema in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Asmaa Al-Ghoul - February 6, 2013 - 1:00am

Heavy slabs of concrete seal the doors of al-Nasr Cinema in Gaza City. Not one aperture exists through which you can see the interior of the building, which has been abandoned for decades. Its towering walls loom over the street, stained black from the old fire. In the 1980s, these walls housed one of the largest cinemas in the Middle East, but now new generations in the Gaza Strip grow old having never been inside a cinema. Memories of better times

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Mashaal says his reported 'two-state' comments are false
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 5, 2013 - 1:00am

Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal told Jordanian state TV on Saturday that media reports suggesting he accepts the two-state solution are false. Last week, the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq reported that Mashaal asked Jordan's King Abdullah to inform US President Barack Obama that Hamas will accept two states for Israel and Palestine. But Mashaal tried to dampen the comments in a TV interview, saying the movement would not "all of a sudden accept a Palestinian state with interim borders."

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Hamas Pushes Islamization of Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Abeer Ayyoub - (Opinion) February 4, 2013 - 1:00am

When Muhammad, who refused to give his family name out of security concerns, asked the DJ at his brother’s wedding in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, to play music for slow dancing, the DJ refused on the grounds that he would be punished by the authorities. Bemused, Muhammad warned the DJ that the family wouldn't continue the wedding if he didn’t play the song. The DJ shrugged off the threat and stood by his refusal. “We were really angry, because we were never informed that the slow dance wasn’t allowed,” Muhammad said.

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Window is closing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Dov Weissglas - (Opinion) February 2, 2013 - 1:00am

As soon as the election results were announced, Prime Minister Netanyahu said he hoped the next government would be as broad as possible and deal mainly with the issues of equal share of the burden, the economic prosperity of the middle class and housing prices. He did not mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the escalating crisis between Israel and the international community, which is a direct result of the conflict. As far as he is concerned, there is no problem at all.

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Gazans decry chronic blackouts at fire victims' funeral
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 1, 2013 - 1:00am

Outrage and grief prevailed at the funeral of six family members killed at home by fire predawn Thursday in eastern Gaza City in a fatal accident that occurred due to chronic blackouts.

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Israel busts Hamas cell in West Bank plotting abduction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
(Analysis) February 1, 2013 - 1:00am

 

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Official: Abbas to convene PLO reform summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 1, 2013 - 1:00am

An independent politician said Thursday that President Abbas will convene a summit of the PLO reform committee next Friday in Cairo. The leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad will participate in the summit along with other parties, Yasser al-Wadiyeh, head of a coalition of independents, he said. The committee to restructure the PLO was formed in the wake of a May 2011 reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas that was never implemented.

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Fire burns Gaza family of six to death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 31, 2013 - 1:00am

A Palestinian family of six died Thursday when a fire broke out in their home in eastern Gaza City, a hospital official said. Hamas police announced an investigation into the incident, in which the father, mother and all their four children, aged between three to six, were burnt to death. Sources said the fire was likely to have been caused by a candle the family lit in their house after midnight. The Gaza Strip suffers from a shortage in electricity due to frequent disruption in fuel supplies to its only power plant.

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