Israel: Airstrike Kills 2 in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 3, 2008 - 1:00am

An Israeli airstrike aimed at a militant squad in southern Gaza killed two Palestinian youths on Tuesday, and a militant was shot and killed in the West Bank when he tried to elude arrest. Palestinian medical officials said the two killed in Gaza were brothers, ages 15 and 17. An Israeli military spokesman said the target was a squad that had fired a mortar shell 20 minutes earlier. The armed wing of Hamas said it fired eight mortar shells at Israeli forces on Tuesday.

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Israel convicts top Palestinian
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
December 3, 2008 - 1:00am

An Israeli military court has convicted the Speaker of the Palestinian parliament of being a member and officer of an illegal organisation. Abdel Aziz Dweik belongs to the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza. He has been in prison since his arrest by Israeli forces in 2006 and will be sentenced at a later date. Dozens of Palestinian legislators were arrested by the Israeli army in 2006. Thirty lawmakers remain in Israeli custody. They were detained following the capture by Hamas-allied militants of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

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Israel punishes Gaza’s civilians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Sunday Herald
by Louisa Waugh - November 30, 2008 - 8:00pm

"WE HAVE power cuts for about 10 hours every day. So if we have electricity at home in the morning, we know there will be no light in the evening. I bought two lamps with rechargeable batteries for the house, and that helped us, but now they are not working, and there are no spare parts to repair them, so we are using candles."

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Israel: Economic surge in W. Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - November 30, 2008 - 8:00pm

Unprecedented military coordination and a sincere effort by the Palestinian Authority to crack down on Hamas has led to a unique economic surge in the West Bank in the past year, according to an internal Defense Ministry report obtained on Monday by The Jerusalem Post. Prepared by the IDF's Civil Administration, the report cites a three percent drop to 16% in Palestinian unemployment since the beginning of the year. In addition, the report cites a 24% increase in Palestinian average daily wages, up from NIS 70 in 2007 to NIS 86.9.

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Israeli court rebukes state over illegal outposts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - November 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

An Israeli government effort to make good on a five-year-old commitment to the US and Palestinians to rein in settlement expansion in the West Bank is coming under legal fire at home. Under the 2003 "road map" peace plan, Israel promised to remove about two dozen or so unauthorized hilltop outposts as a way to build confidence in Palestinian peace talks, but has so far avoided dismantling the outpost communities for fear of violent clashes with settlers.

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Fatah leader who fled to West Bank returns to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
November 25, 2008 - 8:00pm

A Gaza leader of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah faction returned home on Tuesday more than three months after fleeing to the West Bank following deadly clashes between his clan and the Islamist Hamas movement. "I feel how any Palestinian feels on returning to his family and friends," Ahmed Hilles told reporters after entering the Gaza Strip from Israel through the Erez border crossing.

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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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Hamas leaders abroad question group's iron grip on Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - November 24, 2008 - 8:00pm

Internal Hamas correspondence intercepted by the Palestinian Authority and obtained by Haaretz reveals a deep divide between the organization's leadership abroad and its West Bank leadership, on the one hand, and the Gaza leadership on the other. In the documents, the leadership abroad says it does not want "to control Gaza completely while losing the West Bank."

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Violence by Extremists in the Jewish Settler Movement: A Rising Challenge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
by Matthew Levitt, Becca Wasser - November 24, 2008 - 8:00pm

Thirteen years after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli security officials are expressing heightened concern that a new wave of violent extremism among fringe elements in the Jewish settler movement threatens not only Palestinian civilians, but also Israeli national security and the future of any potential peace diplomacy. Recent Trends in Violence by a Settler Fringe

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West Bank alone could go to polls
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Jumana Al Tamimi - November 23, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could hold elections in the occupied West Bank alone if Hamas prevents the ballot from taking place in Gaza, an Abbas aide said on Monday. "If Hamas forcibly prevents them from preparing for elections in Gaza, this is not going to stop the elections from being held. We will hold the elections in the West Bank and Hamas will be responsible for preventing the elections in Gaza," senior Abbas adviser Nimer Hammad said.

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