Qassam rocket fired from Gaza destroys Negev packing plant
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yanir Yagna - June 30, 2010 - 12:00am

A Qassam rocked fired from the Gaza Strip hit the western Negev before dawn Wednesday, seriously damaging a packing plant and other structures in the Sdot Negev Regional Council, but causing no casualties. "Tonight we took the hit, but the [rocket] fire is constant," the plant's manager said. "On the whole, we are a peaceful and quiet community," he continued. "People got up and went to work and are trying to continue the day's routines."

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4 rockets hit south
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Shumlik Hadad - June 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Four Qassam rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel Thursday, causing no injuries. One rocket was fired at Sderot Thursday evening prompting the Color Red alert to go off. The Qassam apparently exploded in an open area near the town. Earlier in the evening, two rockets landed near the southern city of Ashkelon, while another rocket landed in the Ashkelon Beach region, near a kibbutz.

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IDF attacks 3 Gaza tunnels
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
May 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel Air Force jets attacked three tunnels in the Gaza Strip in a joint Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet operation on Thursday night, several hours after a Qassam rocket hit the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council. Two of the targets attacked were in the southern Strip and one was in the northern Strip. According to the IDF, terrorists were using the tunnels to try to infiltrate Israel.

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Four Gaza factions halt rocket fire, in bow to Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - April 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Four Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip will cease firing Qassam rockets at Israel, they announced on Monday. The move followed significant pressure from Hamas on the three smaller factions - Islamic Jihad and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine. Hamas has controlled the territory since the summer of 2007. It failed to persuade small, break-away groups to adhere to the cease-fire. Palestinian sources said the announcedment followed a meeting Saturday of representatives of the four factions.

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Israel warns of new Gaza assault after air strikes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Gavin Rabinowitz - April 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel on Friday threatened a widescale military operation against the Gaza Strip after a string of air strikes which injured three Palestinian children following rocket attacks from the enclave. Israel's deputy prime minister, Silvan Shalom, warned that the military would soon launch a new offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip unless the rocket fire was halted. "If this rocket fire against Israel does not stop, it seems we will have to raise the level of our activity and step up our actions against Hamas," Shalom told public radio.

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Hizbollah, Hamas and the false promise of resistance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Michael Young - (Opinion) March 31, 2010 - 12:00am

In a recent interview with Hizbollah’s Al Manar television station, Bashar al Assad, the president of Syria, was asked about the state of Syria’s relationship with Lebanon after years of tension following the assassination of the former prime minister, Rafiq al Hariri, in 2005. “Damascus cannot be neutral when one side is engaged in resistance and another is against the resistance,” he responded.

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Rocket fired by Gaza militants kills man in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
March 18, 2010 - 12:00am

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip killed a man inside Israel Thursday, Israeli medics said, in the first death from a rocket attack since Israel's Gaza offensive last year. Magen David Adom of Israel's emergency service said the man killed was about 30 years old and appeared to be a farm worker from Thailand employed in an agricultural community just north of Gaza. Such rocket fire was once common but has become rare since the Israeli military's Gaza campaign, which brought about a steep drop in the number of attacks launched from the Palestinian territory.

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Qaeda-labelled group claims fatal Gaza rocket
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 18, 2010 - 12:00am

GAZA, March 18 (Reuters) - A previously unknown group in the Gaza Strip calling itself Ansar al-Sunna (Followers of the Sunnis) send out an SMS message to media claiming to have fired a rocket that killed a man in Israel on Thursday. The name, which is also used by al Qaeda allies in Iraq and elsewhere, indicated that the group belongs to hardline Salafist tendencies in the Palestinian enclave which have challenged the ruling Hamas Islamist movement. Hamas has been trying to enforce an informal ceasefire between Israel and the territory.


Hamas seeks to have rockets in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 1, 2010 - 1:00am

The military wing of Islamic Hamas movement on Monday said it is working on home-made rockets which can be fired on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "Having a Qassam rocket in the West Bank is a demand that must be achieved," Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement published on its website. The statement came a week after security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas arrested a Hamas cell while preparing to test-fire a rocket near Ramallah city. It was the first time that a home-made rocket be found in the West Bank ready to be fired.

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Goldstone Report back on UN agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - February 23, 2010 - 1:00am

The UN General Assembly is scheduled to convene Friday in order to vote on an extension period of five months for Israel's internal investigation of Operation Cast Lead as well as the investigation announced by the Palestinian Authority following the Goldstone Report. Outcomes According to a resolution submitted by Western countries, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be asked to once again report on the progress of the individual probes to member states after the five month period comes to an end.

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