Egypt suddenly reopens Rafah crossing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Within hours of announcing the terminal's "indefinite closure," Egyptian authorities said on Wednesday that Cairo had reopened the Rafah crossing into Gaza. Egyptian security sources told Ma'an the crossing's reopening came "without mentioning any reasons," and that it would remain open for Palestinian patients who have completed treatment in Egyptian hospitals to return until Thursday, in accordance with its weekly schedule.

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Palestinians in Gaza face new challenge -- taxes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - April 12, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas has begun taxing Gaza street vendors and shopkeepers, raising speculation the ruling Islamist group is in a financial crisis fuelled partly by Egypt's building of a border wall to stop smuggling tunnels. Experts said on Monday that perhaps only a few dozen of the hundreds of tunnels are still functional as a result of the steel wall being pounded deep into the ground along the 14-km (8-mile)-long frontier.

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Joint Palestinian-European committee to convene on supporting Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

A Palestinian official announced on Wednesday that the Joint Palestinian-European Committee will hold a meeting in Brussels in June to support vital projects in the Palestinian territories. A preparatory meeting was held Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, attended by both senior Palestinian and European officials. Reyad al-Malki, minister of foreign affairs in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) government, said in a press statement that the two sides agreed to prepare a joint working plan.

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'Israel to allow clothes, shoes into blockaded Gaza'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel will allow a shipment of clothes and shoes to be delivered to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for the first time in its almost three-year-old tight blockade of the enclave, Palestinian officials said on Monday. They said the first 10 truckloads would be arriving via the Israeli-controlled Gaza border point on Thursday. Israel is under international pressure to relax its blockade, which the United Nations says punishes Gaza's 1.5 million people over their leaders - the Islamist group Hamas, who are pledged to Israel's destruction.

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Thirsty Gaza residents battle salt, sewage
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Erin Cunningham - March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Activists around the world are marking World Water Day today with school campaigns, films, and concerts – all designed to draw attention to the fact that access to safe drinking water is something 1 in 5 people don't enjoy, while 40 percent of the world's population doesn't have adequate sanitation.

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Israel to allow international officials to enter Gaza for the first time
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 8, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel will allow UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a senior European Union (EU) official to enter Gaza, said a statement of Israeli Foreign Ministry, in an attempt to ease the international pressure on the Jewish State for besieging Gaza. It is the first time Israel has permitted international officials to cross Israeli border to enter Gaza since the operation Cast Lead in December 2008, according to local daily Ha' aretz.

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PA sends medicine to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 5, 2010 - 1:00am

The Palestinian Authority (PA) Health Ministry in Ramallah successfully arranged a delivery of badly-needed medicine to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, a Thursday report said. The International Committee of the Red Cross coordinated the entry to Gaza with the Israeli military, he said, noting the shipment will be followed by 16 truckloads of medicine and laboratory medical equipment to Gaza, for which arrangements were being made.

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Israel allows less than quarter of needs into Gaza: official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel allows in only less than quarter of goods the Gaza Strip needs, a Palestinian official said Thursday following a call by a senior UN official to relax sanctions on the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave. "Only 15 percent of Gaza's basic needs are allowed in through one crossing that operates on partial capacity," said Jamal El- Khodary, chief of a public anti-siege committee in Gaza.

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Gaza a Year Later
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by MICHEÁL MARTIN - (Opinion) March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Last week I visited Gaza, the first European Union foreign minister to do so in over a year. My purpose was very much a humanitarian one, to see for myself the impact of a blockade that has now been imposed on the people of Gaza for some two-and-a-half years and to meet with the courageous and dedicated staff of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), including its director of operations, Irishman John Ging. They play an indispensable role in maintaining vital humanitarian services to the people of Gaza.

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Occupation Turns Palestinian Women Into Breadwinners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mel Frykberg - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

The World Bank (WB) warned over a year ago that unless Israel eased its restrictions on movement and access in the West Bank the Palestinian economy would further deteriorate. In February the WB released another report, ‘Checkpoints and Barriers: Searching for Livelihoods in the West Bank and Gaza, Gender Dimensions of Economic Collapse’. The report outlines the devastating impact Israel’s occupation has caused to Palestinians financially, and women in particular.

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