On Thanksgiving, not much to give thanks for in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tim McGirk - November 25, 2008 - 8:00pm

IN Gaza, food's going fast. As you sit down to a Thanksgiving feast, please spare a thought for the starving Palestinians of Gaza. There are 1.5 million of them, most of them living hand to mouth, or on UN handouts, because Israel has them under siege. It's a vicious cycle, one that's being repeated every few months or so. The Islamic militants do something crazy, Israel strikes back, the militants fire missiles into southern Israel and then the entry points into Gaza slam shut. Food and the basic necessities of life are squeezed off to the barest minimum.

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Israel lets limited aid into Hamas-run Gaza Strip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - November 23, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel opened border crossings with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Monday, allowing in limited amounts of food and fuel for the second time in three weeks after the United Nations warned of a looming humanitarian crisis. Aid groups said the one-day shipment would have minimal impact because border crossings have been closed for so long, depleting reserves of everything from flour to animal feed. "It is just not enough," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

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UNRWA chief: Gaza on brink of humanitarian catastrophe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
November 20, 2008 - 8:00pm

Gaza faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" if Israel continues to prevent aid reaching the territory by blocking crossing points, the head of the main UN aid agency for the Palestinians said on Friday. Karen AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said the human toll of this month's sealing of Gaza's goods crossings was the gravest since the early days of a Palestinian uprising eight years ago.

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ACP to Distribute One Thousand Laptops to Palestinian Students
Press Release - Contact Information: Omar Tuffaha - November 20, 2008 - 1:00am

Washington, DC, Nov. 21 -- On Nov. 20, the American Charities for Palestine (ACP), the Palestinian Ministry of Education, and USAID announced the commencement of distributing 1,000 laptop computers to Palestinian students in the Occupied Territories. The laptops, worth $200,000, were donated by One Laptop per Child in partnership with ACP and delivered with the help of USAID.


Israel renews blockade of Gaza crossings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, blaming continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel in the coastal territory. Israel had allowed 33 truckloads of supplies into Gaza for the first time in two weeks on Monday, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he would not permit a humanitarian crisis to develop there.

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UN resumes food distribution in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
by Mai Yaghi - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm

Food distribution to half the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million population resumed on Tuesday, although the United Nations warned aid supplies would soon run out unless Israel eases its crippling blockade. "Distribution will go on of the very small amount we brought in on Monday," said UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness. "The supplies will last days, not weeks," he told AFP. Crowds rushed to the UNRWA distribution centres to try to get hold of the limited supplies of flour, sugar, rice, powdered milk and luncheon meat.

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Israel Renews Blockade Of Gaza Crossings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
November 17, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, blaming continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel in the coastal territory. Israel had allowed 33 truckloads of supplies into Gaza for the first time in two weeks on Monday, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he would not permit a humanitarian crisis to develop there.

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Israel Allows Limited Aid Into Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
November 16, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel opened a border crossing with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in two weeks, allowing in a limited amount of humanitarian aid. The move came ahead of talks in Jerusalem between outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who termed Israel's tightened blockade of the Gaza Strip a "war crime." Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Peter Lerner said approximately 30 truckloads of goods entered the Gaza Strip, including meat and powdered milk for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

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Gaza ceasefire continues to unravel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

The ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip continued to unravel on Friday, as several Israeli towns close to the territory came under attack from rockets and mortars. The two sides have been trading attacks since early last week, when an Israeli military incursion into Gaza killed six militants belonging to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the territory. Gaza-based groups responded with a barrage of rocket and mortar fire, and the violence escalated further when a second Israeli incursion claimed the lives of four more Palestinian militants this week.

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Gaza violence flares again as UN food handouts stop
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

Violence flared again around Gaza on Friday, wounding two militants and an Israeli woman and putting a five-month-old truce in jeopardy as UN food handouts to the Hamas-ruled strip ground to a halt. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held emergency talks with Defence Minister Ehud Barak and military top brass following the firing of nearly 20 rockets from Gaza into southern Israel on Friday. Olmert said at the meeting that the rocket fire was "a blatant and fundamental violation" of the June 19 Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that followed months of deadly clashes between Israel and Hamas.

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