Justice for Gaza conflict victims: a response to Richard Goldstone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
April 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Dear Richard Goldstone As Palestinian human rights organisations, we were surprised by your op-ed, Reconsidering the Goldstone report on Israel and war crimes. Your conclusions that "civilians were not intentionally targeted [by Israel] as a matter of policy? and that Israel has "to a significant degree? sufficiently self-investigated incidents potentially amounting to war crimes in Operation Cast Lead are of particular concern.

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The Goldstone Chronicles
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) April 7, 2011 - 12:00am

We have a new verb, “to Goldstone.” Its meaning: To make a finding, and then partially retract it for uncertain motive. Etymology: the strange actions of a respected South African Jewish jurist under intense pressure from Israel, the U.S. Congress and world Jewish groups.

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Abbas urges West to stop Israeli strikes on Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
April 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Western powers on Thursday to intervene after Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed four Palestinians. He called on the West "to immediately intervene to stop this aggression", the official Wafa news agency reported. Abbas also urged Palestinian militants not to give Israel an excuse to hit Gaza. The flareup of violence followed an attack on an Israeli school bus in which an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza wounded two people, drawing a swift Israeli response.

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Medics: 4 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli aircraft attacked two targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, wounding four people, Palestinian medics and witnesses said. They said the targets were a group of militants and a plastics factory, both east of Gaza City. All of the wounded were at the factory, they added. A Ma'an correspondent said two of those injured were women, and that one of them was pregnant. An Israeli military spokeswoman told AFP that aircraft hit "two terror tunnels," a phrase the army uses to refer to tunnels being prepared by Gaza militants to launch cross-border raids.

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Sudan Says Israel Launched a Missile Strike on a Car, Killing 2
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Josh Kron - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am

The government of Sudan accused Israel on Wednesday of carrying out a fatal airstrike on a car traveling from the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. Sudan is considered a transit point in the weapons route to Hamas, the Palestinian faction that runs Gaza. Israel has not yet responded to the accusation. Sudanese officials said a missile struck the car around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, obliterating the vehicle and killing two people who were inside.

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Rattling the Cage: Goldstone was never the problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) April 6, 2011 - 12:00am

For Israel and its blind supporters, Operation Cast Lead just got stamped glatt kosher. Richard Goldstone writes in The Washington Post that IDF investigations have changed his mind, that he now thinks Palestinian “civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy,” so Israel is saying this proves the war in Gaza was a good war, a just war. The most moral war on Earth.

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Gaza: the stain remains on Israel's war record
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Kenneth Roth - (Opinion) April 5, 2011 - 12:00am

The Netanyahu government is doing everything it can to interpret a recent Washington Post op-ed article by Justice Richard Goldstone as vindication of Israel's conduct in the 2008-09 Gaza conflict. It is nothing of the sort. Israel's reluctance to confront that reality finds a parallel in its refusal to date to conduct credible investigations into the serious violations of the laws of war that it committed in Gaza. The Goldstone article does not relieve it of the obligation to pursue those investigations.

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Gaza Militants Declare Truce Over; Israel Says Deterrence Holding
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Omar Ghraieb, Arieh O'Sullivan - April 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Lashing out verbally following an Israeli air strike that killed three members of the armed wing of Hamas, Islamic militant groups in the Gaza Strip declared the de-facto two-year-old ceasefire with Israel null and void. But an Israel official said the threat was empty.

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Strike Kills Gaza Fighters, Spurring Hamas Warning
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - April 2, 2011 - 12:00am

Thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals on Saturday of three senior Hamas militants killed by Israel in an overnight airstrike in southern Gaza, and Hamas leaders warned that Israel would bear the consequences. But the area remained calm on Saturday, and Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza, seemed wary of fueling a new round of hostilities.

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Gazan abducted in Ukraine not Hamas member: spokesman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 1, 2011 - 12:00am

Hamas on Thursday said the Palestinian engineer kidnapped by Israel in Ukraine in February was not a member of the Islamic movement which controls the Gaza Strip. Dirar Abu Sisi, who appeared in an Israeli court, "has no relation with Hamas," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman. Israel said that Abu Sisi, the operating manager of Gaza's only power plant, had information about Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas near Gaza in 2006.

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