Rights groups decry restrictions on Gaza trade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - June 18, 2009 - 12:00am

A can of humous from Gaza is a rarity anywhere in the world, Oxfam spokesman Mike Bailey said as he added his voice to a group of 36 aid organizations, who along with the UN on Wednesday protested Israel's two-year-old "blockade" of the Strip. "I was in Gaza," Bailey said at a press conference which was symbolically held in a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warehouse in Jerusalem that supplies Palestinian refugees. As he held up a small can of humous from Gaza, he added, "I brought you something that only someone with an international passport can carry out."

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Scant movement on Gaza blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
June 16, 2009 - 12:00am

Two years since Hamas seized control in Gaza, US President Barack Obama has strengthened his calls for an end to the crippling blockade Israel has imposed on the territory. "If the people of Gaza have no hope, if they can't even get clean water… if the border closures are so tight that it is impossible for reconstruction… then that is not going to be a recipe for Israel's long-term security," he said in his recent speech in Cairo.

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Gazans continue digging lifeline tunnels even as Egypt, Israel scramble to seal them
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - April 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Once a profitable business, Abu Abdullah's tunnel under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip has been out of work for three weeks due to an Egyptian security crackdown on smuggling. The Palestinian network of some 3,000 tunnels, created to thwart Israel's blockade of the coastal territory ruled by Hamas Islamists, was reduced to hundreds by bombing during Israel's three-week offensive in January. Now Egyptian police efforts are also biting into Gaza's underground supply system, which supplements the tightly restricted flow of aid commodities allowed in by the Israelis.

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MIDEAST: Aid Rots Outside Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Erin Cunningham - April 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aid intended for the Gaza Strip is piling up in cities across Egypt's North Sinai region, despite recent calls from the United Nations to ease aid flow restrictions to the embattled territory in the wake of Operation Cast Lead. Food, medicine, blankets, infant food and other supplies for Gaza's 1.5 million people, coming from governments and non-governmental agencies around the world, are being stored in warehouses, parking lots, stadiums and on airport runways across Egypt's North Sinai governorate.

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'Sounds worrying'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Dina Ezzat - April 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Karen Abu Zayd is commissioner general of UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). Her job is to make sure that relief and human development are accessible to Palestinians under occupation, in Gaza, the West Bank and refugee camps scattered in countries neighbouring the occupied Palestinian territories. This mission is met through providing education, healthcare, social services and emergency aid to over 4.6 million refugees living in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic.

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Little hope in Gaza aftermath
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jeremy Bowen - April 9, 2009 - 12:00am

I can't imagine what Gaza would be like if it didn't have the sea. The other morning its tiny piece of the Mediterranean was coming in lazy and calm, and a light breeze was blowing down the beach. If you are Gazan and your soul is troubled, or if you just want some space, the beach must be one of the better places to go. GAZA AFTER THE CONFLICT # 80% living on less than $2 a day # 35,000 without running water # 20,000 homes destroyed or damaged # 80% living on less than $2 a day # 10% without electricity # 800 private businesses destroyed or damaged

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Let's cooperate in the interest of Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
(Editorial) April 8, 2009 - 12:00am

The recent call by the US government urging Israel to honour the principle of the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict is encouraging. It is difficult, however, to see how the Obama administration can impose this position on Israel's newly-elected right-wing government.

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U.S. Talks Tough on Gaza Aid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - March 1, 2009 - 1:00am

The United States on Monday will pledge $300 million in humanitarian relief for people in Gaza after the 22-day war with Israel but will maintain restrictions to prevent any assistance from reaching Hamas, State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, attending an international conference here to raise funds for the Gaza Strip, will also announce $600 million in assistance to the Palestinian Authority, which is controlled by Fatah, a rival of Hamas that is dominant in the West Bank.

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Fayyad asks donors to channel Gaza aid through him
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
February 26, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is asking donor countries to channel hundreds of millions in expected aid for Gaza "first and foremost" through his government. Fayyad's request is part of a 53-page report he presented to donors ahead of a pledging conference for Gaza next week. The report was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. Gaza's Hamas rulers are not invited to the conference. Instead, the Palestinians will be represented by Fayyad, a US-backed moderate and Hamas rival.

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Clinton warns Israel over delays in Gaza aid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - February 25, 2009 - 1:00am

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has relayed messages to Israel in the past week expressing anger at obstacles Israel is placing to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. A leading political source in Jerusalem noted that senior Clinton aides have made it clear that the matter will be central to Clinton's planned visit to Israel next Tuesday. Ahead of Clinton's visit, special U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is expected to issue a sharply worded protest on the same matter when he arrives here Thursday.

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