Gaza plight a crisis with a difference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - June 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Don't ask Hatem Hajaj whether there's a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Four months ago, the unemployed salesclerk's son was born with a heart blockage. Doctors told Hajaj that the baby's only hope was transfer to a Jerusalem hospital because Gaza lacked a pediatric surgery unit. While his son, Mohamed, fought to breathe on a ventilator, Hajaj spent a week gathering the transfer documents needed under Israel's strict border rules. Then there was another agonizing week, watching as his son's tiny body began to bloat as he waited for an answer.

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Fayyad wants Gaza opened in line with 2005 deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tom Perry - June 11, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on Thursday for Gaza's borders to be opened in line with an agreement that would restore a role for his West Bank-based government in managing the crossings. Fayyad told Reuters in an interview that opening the crossings in accordance with the 2005 agreement would help reunify the West Bank and Gaza -- which have been ruled by separate governments since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

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Israel eases Gaza embargo on food, other goods
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - June 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Let them eat cake — well, at least cookies, potato chips and jam. That's how many here viewed Israel's relaxation of border restrictions to permit a variety of new items into Gaza Strip. The list, announced Wednesday, includes soda, juice, jam, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies, candy and a variety of herbs, including coriander. Israel's move impressed almost no one in this impoverished seaside territory. Some accused Israel of tossing them a few scraps to score points with the outside world.

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Israeli document: Gaza blockade isn't about security
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
by Sheera Frenkel - June 10, 2010 - 12:00am

As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory. Israel imposed severe restrictions on Gaza in June 2007, after Hamas won elections and took control of the coastal enclave after winning elections there the previous year, and the government has long said that the aim of the blockade is to stem the flow of weapons to militants in Gaza.

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Israel 'to accept British plan to ease Gaza blockade'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph
by Adrian Blomfield, Alex Spillius - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Britain is understood to have taken a leading role in the negotiations and last week circulated a confidential document proposing ways of easing the blockade, according to Western officials familiar with a draft version of the report. Facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Israeli officials said that would agree, in principle, to permit the passage of substantially more aid through Israel's land crossings with the Hamas-controlled territory.

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Never mind the 'Freedom Flotilla.' Is Israel's Gaza blockade legal?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Robert Marquand - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel’s raid of a “Freedom Flotilla” of activists that ended with nine deaths brought a global firestorm of protest, dimmed the chances for a peace deal, and threatened Israel’s relations with Turkey, its closest ally in the region.

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Anxious Gazans trying to leave blockaded territory
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Karin Laub - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am

A Palestinian who had to delay graduate school in Malaysia and an elderly man forced to put off eye surgery in Egypt are among thousands anxiously trying to get out of Gaza now that the blockaded territory's gateway to the world has opened just a little. A Hamas-run passenger terminal on the Gaza side of the border was packed on Tuesday with hundreds of Gazans trying to get clearance just to approach the crossing into Egypt. It was a chaotic scene, with stressed passengers arguing with overwhelmed Hamas border officials.

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'We'll be Back - With Bigger Flotillas'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mel Frykberg - (Interview) June 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Controversy surrounds the events following the deadly commando raid with survivors from among the 700 activists on board the flotilla giving a very different version of events from that of the Israeli government. Q: Critics have accused FG of deliberately provoking a confrontation with the Israelis and argued that the attempt to break the siege was political and not just a humanitarian relief operation.

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Britain: No quid pro quo deal on Gaza blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid - June 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Britain has denied a report in The Daily Telegraph of a British plan wherein Israel will ease the Gaza siege in exchange for decreased world pressure for an international probe into the events of the Gaza flotilla, the British Embassy in Tel Aviv said in a statement on Wednesday. "We don't know where the idea of a quid pro quo came from… the Foreign Secretary has made clear that the current restrictions on Gaza must be lifted in line with UNSCR 1860," the statement read.

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PA welcomes international positions for ending siege
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 8, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian ministers cabinet officially welcomed several international moves to lift the siege on Gaza during its weekly cabinet meeting Monday, calling for action to ensure recent moves to aid Gaza continue.

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