Abbas replaces intelligence chief
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
October 21, 2008 - 8:00pm

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has fired his intelligence chief, amid reports that Hamas, the Palestinian faction that runs the Gaza Strip, had demanded he be replaced. The move sparked tensions within Abbas's Fatah faction, an unnamed Palestinian official was reported as saying by The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

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Hamas Welcomes Egypt Plan for Palestinian Unity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
October 20, 2008 - 8:00pm

Hamas on Tuesday gave its tentative support to an Egyptian plan to reconcile the Islamist movement and the rival Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. "We will agree to the draft of the agreement and will not reject it," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP, but he added that the plan would require some "modification" before it could be implemented. "The draft contains positive elements, but also has some points that need modification and some points that need clarification from the Egyptian leadership."

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Egypt to host intra-Palestinian talks next month
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
October 20, 2008 - 8:00pm

Egypt has invited Hamas and Fatah to meet in Cairo on November 9 for talks aimed at restoring Palestinian unity, Hamas said Monday. "We received yesterday a draft of the Egyptian vision for Palestinian reconciliation which includes a call for a full Palestinian dialogue," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP. "Hamas has no problem in attending and we were the first to call for Palestinian-Palestinian talks to end the internal conflict," he added.

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Half of Palestinians Want Combined Election
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor
October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm

Many adults in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would like to hold the presidential and legislative ballots at the same time, according to a poll by the Jerusalem Media & Communication Center. 51.4 per cent of respondents support having simultaneous elections.

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Hamas likely to extend truce with Israel, say Gaza sources
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - October 16, 2008 - 8:00pm

Hamas is likely to seek to extend its truce with Israel for another six months, Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip predicted Thursday. The current six-month truce, brokered by Egypt, expires in December. A senior Hamas official told Haaretz that the Islamic group has not yet made a decision on extending the truce.

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Abbas rejects request by Egypt for talks with Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 15, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has turned down an Egyptian proposal to hold separate talks with Hamas officials in Cairo before the end of the month, a senior PA official in Ramallah said Wednesday. Abbas's decision drew sharp criticism from Hamas, which said this provided further evidence that the PA president and his Fatah faction were not really interested in ending the power struggle between the two parties.

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Palestinian leaders call for reconciliation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Albert Aji - October 11, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday the rift between his mainstream Palestinian faction and archrival Hamas must end. The Hamas leader, meanwhile, said the time is right for reconciliation. Fatah and Hamas have been at odds since the latter's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Following the takeover, Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led government from his base in the West Bank and formed a new administration excluding the more radical group.

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Egypt seeks ways to end Fatah-Hamas rift
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 5, 2008 - 8:00pm

A senior Hamas delegation is scheduled to arrive in Cairo Tuesday for talks with Egyptian officials on ways of ending the Hamas-Fatah power struggle. Headed by Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, the delegation is expected to hold a series of meetings with Egyptian Intelligence Chief Gen. Omar Suleiman and other senior Egyptian government officials over the next few days. The visit to Cairo is the first of its kind by a high-level Hamas delegation in several months.

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Third Palestinian Uprising Possible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Cherrie Heywood - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

A senior Palestinian politician and member of Fatah, the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA) of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has warned of the possibility of a third Palestinian uprising or Intifada. Kadoura Fares, a leader of the Palestinian peace coalition, demanded at a conference in Tel Aviv on the Geneva Initiative last week, that Abbas or Abu Mazen as he is better known, halt peace talks with Israel citing a lack of progress on the ground.

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PA, Hamas mutually release prisoners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday ordered the release of 40 Hamas members from PA prisons in the West Bank as a "goodwill gesture" to the Islamic movement on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Id al-Fitr. Palestinian Authority... The decision came two days after Hamas released 30 Fatah members who were being held in its prisons in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas government said that move was also a "goodwill gesture" for the Muslim holiday.

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