Security | The American Task Force on Palestine

Militants fire on Egyptian troops in Sinai, 4 hurt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Ashraf Sweilam - August 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Militants attacked Egypt's security forces and wounded four policemen in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, in the tenth day of clashes since 16 soldiers were killed in the volatile borderland near Israel and the Gaza strip earlier this month. The troops were returning from an early morning raid where they had arrested two suspects in their homes when militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at their convoy as it was driving along a major road, a security official said.

PM to Abbas: Israel will catch firebomb assailants
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hassan Shaalan - August 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday and offered his greetings for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Netanyahu promised that Israel will spare no effort in bringing those behind the firebomb assault against Palestinians to justice.

Why Israel shrugs at retaliation after attack on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Avi Nave, Daniel Nisman - (Opinion) August 17, 2012 - 12:00am

Last week Iran sent a high-level envoy, Saeed Jalili, on a particularly controversial public-relations tour to Lebanon and Syria, the most explosive corner of the region. After ruffling feathers during a Beirut stopover, Mr.

Sinai Chaos Threatens Peacekeeping Mission
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - August 17, 2012 - 12:00am

Recent unrest and violence in Sinai are leaving more than 1,500 troops from the United States and other countries exposed as they seek to maintain a peacekeeping mission there that many experts now criticize as anachronistic. The troops’ presence in Sinai, mandated by the 1979 Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt, has served as a guarantor of that treaty. But current developments are transforming the peninsula, long seen as a vast desert buffer that reinforced the treaty, into a regional flashpoint putting the fragile peace between the two nations at risk.

Israeli threats about Iran -- crying wolf or laying groundwork?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Carol J. Williams - (Opinion) August 17, 2012 - 12:00am

They're passing out gas masks in Jerusalem and testing a new text-messaging system for alerting Israelis to incoming rockets. The civil defense preparations follow a week of renewed warnings by Israeli officials that airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities may be imminent, despite U.S. misgivings, to thwart Tehran's alleged pursuit of nuclear bomb-making capability.

2 Palestinians killed in Yarmouk shelling
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

A Palestinian refugee and his child were killed Thursday after the Syrian regime bombed residential areas in Yarmouk camp in Damascus, local activists said. Palestinian activists in Yarmouk camp told Ma’an that the refugee, Jamal Abu al-Haija, and his daughter Hanin, 10, were killed by a mortar shell fired near their house in the sport city area. Activists said dozens of shells were fired at Yarmouk camp at dawn because Syrian and Palestinian houses are next to each other in the camp. He pointed out that the sounds of shells had frightened children.

Israeli military: Blasts heard in southern city
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Explosions rocked the southern Israeli city of Eilat late Wednesday, and the military said it suspected that rockets were fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. No casualties or damage were reported. Eilat is a Red Sea resort next to Sinai, scene of many militant attacks in recent months. On Aug. 5, Sinai militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza converge. Then they stole Egyptian army vehicles and crashed into Israel, where Israeli forces stopped them with gunfire.

No Palestinians involved in Sinai attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Asharq Al-Awsat has learned that security agencies operating in the Gaza Strip are currently in the process of providing their Egyptian counterparts with information highlighting their past experiences in confronting Salafist jihadist groups. This is in order to help Cairo confront the militant groups operating on the Sinai Peninsula following the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers close to the Rafah Border Crossing.

Gaza: Egypt opening border ahead of Muslim holiday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Ibrahim Barzak - August 14, 2012 - 12:00am

Egypt on Tuesday opened its border with Hamas-ruled Gaza for a three-day period ahead of a major Muslim holiday this weekend, but imposed tight restrictions on who can travel and did not say whether it would resume normal border operations. The government in Cairo closed the border Aug. 5, shutting down the Rafah passenger terminal and — according to Egyptian security officials — sealing more than 100 cross-border smuggling tunnels. The move came after Islamic militants in Egypt's Sinai desert near Gaza killed 16 Egyptian troops at a border post.

After Sinai Attack, U.S. and Egypt Step Up Talks on Security
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Lee Myers, Thom Shanker - August 11, 2012 - 12:00am

In the wake of the attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers near the border with Israel last Sunday, the United States and Egypt are negotiating a package of assistance to address what administration officials described as a worsening security vacuum in the Sinai Peninsula.

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