Gaza's troubled tunnel trade swings into reverse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Business has become so bad for Gaza's smuggler barons since Israel relaxed its blockade that tunnel traders have given up spiriting goods into the enclave, and some have even turned underground exporters. Smugglers had made fortunes hauling all manner of goods from Egypt through tunnels into Gaza, supplying 1.5 million Palestinians badly hurt by Israel's clampdown imposed in 2007 after the Islamist Hamas group took over the tiny territory.

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Israel to allow 20 cars into Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel will permit the entry of private vehicles into Gaza on Monday for the first time since 2007, a Palestinian crossing official said. Raed Fattouh said 20 cars will enter the Strip, as well as oil, spare parts and rubber tires. Israel has slowly allowed the entry of car parts and oil for the first time in four years over the past week.

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Abbas: No alternative to peace talks, we will continue efforts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Offering a positive note after two days of inconclusive Mideast peace negotiations, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he sees no alternative to continuing the talks in search of a peace deal with Israel. "We all know there is no alternative to peace through negotiations, so we have no alternative other than to continue these efforts," Abbas said, speaking through an interpreter during a welcoming ceremony for visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Israel eyes impound of ships breaking Gaza blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Dan Williams - (Analysis) September 8, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM/LONDON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Anticipating fresh bids by pro-Palestinian activists to sail against its Gaza Strip blockade, and hoping to avoid a repeat of its bloody boarding of a Turkish aid ship in May, Israel has turned to maritime law. Israeli officials say vessels will be warned in advance that they face costly impoundment and the possible detainment of crews -- a strategy first floated in July when the threat of such action helped turn a Libyan-chartered ship away from Gaza.

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Finding a Steadier Path in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - (Analysis) September 7, 2010 - 12:00am

KHAN YUNIS, Gaza — Tough-looking ambulance drivers in this central Gazan city are drawing images of their fears with crayons. In the northwestern village of El Atatra, in an overheated hall without electricity, 10-year-olds are closing their eyes and imagining a reassuring place. In Gaza City, women who have lost children to political violence are dancing away their tensions, their black abayas shaking and flowing.

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Israel Refuses Blair Request to Up Electricity to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - August 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has balked at a request to boost the amount of electricity it supplies to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on grounds that it didn’t want to cooperate with “a terror organization.” Quartet Representative Tony Blair made the request Monday to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, Blaire’s spokesman confirmed to The Media Line.

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IDF soldiers suspected of theft from Gaza flotilla ship
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Military Police arrested an Israel Defense Forces officer suspected of stealing laptop computers from activists aboard the Gaza-bound aid ship raided by Israeli commandos in May and selling them to other officers. The officer allegedly sold the computers to a friend, who in turn sold them to friends of his. Three officers who are suspected of having bought the computers have also been detained for questioning.

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Settlers and Palestinians remember 2005 Gaza pullout
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Paul Wood - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Neve Dekalim was once the largest Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. Now it is mostly sand and rubble. Palestinian trucks are taking away the last of what remains of the Jewish homes, to use as building material. The evictions from Neve Dekalim took place five years ago today under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan. In all, some 9,000 Israelis were evacuated from 21 Jewish settlements. Celia Goldstein, a British-born settler, was one of the last to leave Neve Dekalim.

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Israel's Gaza blockade: Millions of dollars worth of aid piles up in warehouses
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Anne Usher - August 11, 2010 - 12:00am

In a half-dozen warehouses in this southern Israeli port, refrigerators and roofing materials for Israeli homes share space with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of PVC pipes, generators, and other equipment intended for 37 wells and water treatment facilities in the Gaza Strip. Stacked in other warehouses close to the Gaza border are steel pipes and cement for building the facilities’ foundations – part of $85 million set aside for water projects by UNICEF and other international donors.

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Israel wasn't ready for flotilla resistance -general
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ari Rabinovitch - August 11, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Israeli troops were not ready for the violent resistance they met when they boarded a Gaza-bound aid ship and ended up killing nine pro-Palestinian activists, the country's top military officer said on Wednesday. Speaking to an inquiry, Israeli Defence Forces Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi gave the most detailed explanation so far of what went wrong with the military plan in the May 31 raid, which sparked a world outcry.

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