Israel keeps Gaza goods crossing shut despite truce
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - April 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel kept a commercial crossing with Hamas-ruled Gaza shut for a seventh day on Tuesday although a truce had stopped cross-border fighting, and a UN official said he was "extremely worried" essential supplies may run out. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which provides aid to more than two thirds of Gaza's population of 1.5 million, said 172 truckloads of oil, sugar and flour were waiting to cross into the impoverished coastal territory.

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Israel and Hamas Consider Cease-Fire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel and Hamas signaled on Sunday that they were willing to restore calm after days of intense fighting, and while militants in Gaza fired about 10 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel, most fell in open areas close to the border and Israel did not immediately respond.

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Short-term ceasefire, long-term instability foreseen in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Adam Gonn - April 10, 2011 - 12:00am

After a weekend of intense Israeli air strikes and artillery fire in response to over 120 rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, Hamas is calling Israel to halt its attacks. In an interview with the Israel Radio on Sunday, Ghazi Hamad, the deputy foreign minister of the deposed Hamas government, said that "we are interested in calm, but want the Israeli military to stop its operations." Earlier on Sunday Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was willing to accept a mutual ceasefire with Hamas.

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Israeli troops kill Palestinian on Gaza border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
April 5, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, a Palestinian medical worker and the Israeli military said. An army spokeswoman said the man was a militant and had been spotted in an area Israel has deemed off limits because militants often use it to target military patrols along the fence. "Soldiers identified an armed man near the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip and fired towards him identifying a hit," the spokeswoman said.

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Israeli minister proposes Gaza artificial island
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeffrey Heller - March 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel is considering building an artificial island with sea and air ports off blockaded Gaza, as a long-term solution to shipping goods into the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave, the transport minister said. Yisrael Katz told Army Radio on Wednesday he wants an international force to control the island for "at least 100 years" and for unloaded cargo to be brought into Gaza along a 4.5-km (3-mile)-long bridge with a security checkpoint to prevent arms smuggling. "The Israeli military would continue the naval blockade, but in a more localised way," he said.

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Israeli army renews order to distance Gazans from border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 17, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli army on Thursday renewed warning to the Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip to stay away from northern and eastern borders with Israel. The warning was carried by hundreds of flyers Israeli airplanes dropped in the coastal enclave, especially in areas near the borders, residents said. The Palestinians have to stay 300 meters away from the security fence, the flyers read. "Anybody approaching puts himself in danger, as the Israeli Defense Forces will take the necessary procedures to distance him, including opening fire when necessary. "

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PM says IDF to build fence along Jordan border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ilana Curiel - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

During a tour of the fence that is being constructed along Israel's border with Egypt on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the IDF to begin planning the construction of another fence along the border with Jordan. "We will have to build a fence in the east as well, because if we block one border they will come from the Arava," he later told the Negev Conference in Eilat.

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Gaza crossing still shut amid transport strike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 10, 2011 - 1:00am

A transport workers strike as kept Gaza's Kerem Shalom crossing for a fifth day Thursday, as truck drivers take the wheel of a protest demanding an end to the closure of Gaza's only bulk goods crossing, announced the week before. The strikers were demanding that the PA retract its agreement on the closure of the bulk goods crossing, saying the new arrangements would mean not only a reduced flow of goods into Gaza, but also increased risk to drivers making the trek from the southenmost tip of Gaza to the northern population center of Gaza City over what drivers say are dangerous roads.

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Hamas urges Egypt to ease movement of Gazans through Rafah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 10, 2011 - 1:00am

Gaza's Hamas on Thursday urged Egypt to ease the movement of Palestinians to Egypt through the Rafah crossing point. In a letter to Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Prime Minister Ismail Haneya of the deposed Hamas government said that Egyptian authorities at Rafah prevent some Gazans from leaving the Gaza Strip. Earlier this week, Egypt's ambassador to the Palestinian territories Yasser Othman said that Egyptian officials are considering a package of steps to facilitate the situation in the Gaza Strip.

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Palestinian worker killed in tunnel collapse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 7, 2011 - 1:00am

An 18-year-old Palestinian worker was killed on Monday when a smuggling tunnel beneath Gaza's southern border with Egypt caved in, medical sources said. Hundreds of tunnels are located beneath the borderline, which were used for bringing in materials forbidden by Israel through the commercial crossing points with Gaza. Tunnel business flourished between 2007 and the middle of 2010, when an Israeli blockade against Gaza was in its highest level. Construction materials and petrol flow to Gaza mainly through the tunnels.

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