UN agency: Gaza won't be viable by 2020 due to population growth
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 28, 2012 - 12:00am

The United Nations agency that is responsible for Palestinian refugees warned Monday that the Gaza Strip will not be viable if population growth continues under closure. Robert Turner, operations director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said at a news conference here that the population in Gaza will increase to over two million by 2020. The Gaza Strip's current population is 1.6 million.

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UN: Gaza not 'liveable' by 2020 barring urgent action
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - August 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Gaza will no longer be "liveable" by 2020 unless urgent action is taken to improve water supply, power, health, and schooling, the United Nations' most comprehensive report on the Palestinian enclave said on Monday. "Action needs to be taken now if Gaza is to be a liveable place in 2020 and it is already difficult now," UN humanitarian coordinator Maxwell Gaylard told journalists when the report was released on Monday.

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Witness to Rachel Corrie’s Death Responds to Israeli Court Ruling Absolving Soldier
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Robert Mackey - August 28, 2012 - 12:00am

As my colleagues Jodi Rudoren and Danielle Ziri report, an Israeli judge ruled on Tuesday that the state bore no responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was crushed to death by a military bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza. Ms. Corrie, who was a student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., joined the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement in January 2003, and was killed two months later in the Gazan town of Rafah, which straddles the border with Egypt.

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The Corrie verdict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Editorial) August 28, 2012 - 12:00am

The death of 23-year-old American rights activist Rachel Corrie was a “regrettable accident,” not an intentional war crime, Haifa District Court Judge Oded Gershon ruled on Tuesday. For those following the trial who are unbiased by a perennial desire to bash Israel and search tirelessly for its faults, the verdict was no surprise.

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Gaza tunnel trade squeezed by Egypt 'crackdown'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jon Donnison - August 21, 2012 - 12:00am

In the gently rolling dunes around the town of Rafah in southern Gaza, Sagah slopes around with his donkey looking like a man with time on his hands. Fine white dust clings to the sweat on his arms under a hot midday sun. He's glum. "For the last two weeks there has been no work. I am a poor man. I have no money," he shouts, clapping his hands together in exasperation. Sagah's trade is smuggling. He is one of thousands of tunnel workers who have made a living ferrying goods from Egypt into Gaza.

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Blast damages women hair salon in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

A women hair salon was damaged in an explosion in central Gaza Strip, a human rights organization reported Wednesday. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said in a statement that unidentified gunmen blew up a hair salon in the Nuseirat camp, damaging the salon's interior, a nearby building and a number of windows in nearby houses. An investigation has been opened into the case, a police spokesman said.

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Official: Rafah crossing to reopen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 8, 2012 - 12:00am

Egyptian authorities are expected to reopen the Rafah land crossing to Palestinian travelers in the coming days, says Mahir Abu Sabha, director of crossings in the ministry of interior in Gaza. Abu Sabha told Ma’an that he expected the Rafah crossing to be opened Thursday-Saturday. He asserted that talks with the Egyptian side over reopening the crossing were ongoing. Abu Sabha reiterated that the Gaza Strip had nothing to do with the "terrorist" attack on Egyptian soldiers Sunday which left 16 dead.

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Gaza pays dearly
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
(Editorial) August 8, 2012 - 12:00am

The militarization of the Sinai by all kinds of extremist factions, as well as the spread of such parties inside Gaza, began under the nose of Hosni Mubarak, and has been going on in Gaza since Hamas took over the strip.

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Gaza Water Increasingly Polluted and Expensive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Linda Gradstein - August 6, 2012 - 12:00am

Gaza’s population is increasing, and the water supply is not keeping pace according to Oxfam, the British human rights organization. In a new report, the group asserts that Gazans are spending as much as one-third of their household income on drinking water, and are facing growing health risks.

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Traditional Gaza drawn to old alternative therapy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ibrahim Barzak - June 27, 2012 - 12:00am

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — In a Gaza shop, a group of men sit with glass jars attached to their legs, their backs, their faces, sucking at the skin as blood slowly seeps out. It's the latest craze in the isolated coastal strip — cupping therapy. Cupping is an ancient form of alternative medicine whose advocates believe it improves blood flow and helps relieve a range of ailments from headaches to arthritis. It is perhaps best known in the West as part of traditional Chinese medicine.

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