Wounded Gaza family lay bleeding for 20 hours
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - January 5, 2009 - 1:00am

Three hours after the Israel Defense Forces began their ground operation in the Gaza Strip, at about 10:30 P.M. Saturday night, a shell or missile hit the house owned by Hussein al A'aiedy and his brothers. Twenty-one people live in the isolated house, located in an agricultural area east of Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood. Five of them were wounded in the strike: Two women in their eighties (his mother and aunt), his 14-year-old son, his 13-year-old niece and his 10-year-old nephew.

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ATFP Urges Cease-fire in Gaza, Urgent Humanitarian Measures
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - December 31, 2008 - 1:00am

The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) reiterated its urgent call for a cease-fire between all parties in the Gaza Strip and urged the United States Government to do everything in its power to secure a cease-fire. Israeli military airstrikes against the Gaza Strip since Saturday have killed approximately 400 Palestinians and injured hundreds more. ATFP called this loss of life appalling, and expressed alarm at the suffering and increasingly perilous position of the innocent civilian population in Gaza.


Israel mounts third day of Gaza raids
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - December 29, 2008 - 1:00am

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli air strikes flattened bastions of Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip on Monday in the third day of an offensive that has killed more than 325 Palestinians in the deadliest violence in the territory in decades. "We have an all-out war against Hamas and its kind," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in parliament, using a term he has employed in the past to describe a long-term struggle against Israel's Islamist enemies.

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Gaza humanitarian plight 'disastrous,' U.N. official says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN
December 28, 2008 - 1:00am

(CNN) -- Israeli airstrikes pounding Gaza are deepening the humanitarian crisis in an area that was already in deep distress, according to a United Nations aid official. "The situation is absolutely disastrous," U.N. official Christopher Gunness told CNN on Sunday, as a second day of aerial attacks brought the death toll in Gaza close to 300. Hundreds more people have been injured.

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Gaza and Israel brace for violence as truce nears end
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

As a six-month ceasefire with Israel neared its end on Thursday Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were divided on whether they wanted it renewed. But the majority seemed braced for a surge of violence. On its side of the tense border, Israel insisted the "lull" was in the Palestinians' interest and ought to continue indefinitely. But Israelis in the firing line of rockets from Gaza were also worried that the truce would soon be over.

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UN aid agency suspends food supplies to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
December 18, 2008 - 1:00am

A United Nations aid agency has suspended food deliveries to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip because it has run out of flour, the group said on Thursday. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provided crucial supplies to 750,000 Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip after Israel closed border crossings. "Food distribution for both emergency and regular programmes will be suspended ... until further notice," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a statement.

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Amira Hass returns to Gaza after a two-year absence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - December 12, 2008 - 1:00am

The first thing that captures your eyes, after two years away, is a visual quiet. Gone are the flags of every color (including green) that once flew everywhere; the billboards commemorating shaheeds with their weapons, new ones popping up nearly every day; the large banners emblazoned with slogans. Yes, here and there you still come across a tattered flag or faded sign, old graffiti on the walls, or a smiling Arafat beaming down from a giant poster that no one took the trouble to remove, the colors dulled by time.

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It's grim in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Anne Penketh - (Blog) December 3, 2008 - 1:00am

I met Karen AbuZayd, the head of UNRWA, when she was sitting in the basement dining room of a trendy London hotel beside a mirror on which an artist has written in gold letters: "this is shit."It is understandable that Mrs AbuZayd, whose UN agency looks after the welfare of Palestinian refugees, did not wish to be photographed in front of the art work. But the message on the mirror aptly sums up the dramatic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, as she was the first to point out.

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UN accuses Israel of punishing aid workers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Anne Penketh - November 30, 2008 - 8:00pm

The UN official responsible for the welfare of 4.6 million Palestinian refugees has accused Israel of extending its punishment of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip to include international humanitarian staff. Karen AbuZayd, who is based in Gaza City, said that Israeli authorities have within the past month stopped UN staff based in Gaza from using the diplomatic pouch. They gave no reason for the move, which is a clear breach of international law.

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More aid to enter blockaded Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
November 25, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel has permitted limited aid and fuel deliveries into the Gaza Strip, which it has closed to virtually all supplies for the past three weeks. Gaza's only power plant, which is in urgent need of spare parts, is to restart at reduced capacity. Shortages and power cuts in the territory have led the UN to describe conditions there as the "worst ever". Israel says the tightening of the Gaza blockade is a legitimate response to rocket fire by Palestinian militants.

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