Misery Hangs Over Gaza Despite Pledges of Help

By ETHAN BRONNER

Published: May 28, 2009

GAZA — Dozens of families still live in tents amid collapsed buildings and rusting pipes. With construction materials barred, a few are building mud-brick homes. Everything but food and medicine has to be smuggled through desert tunnels from Egypt. Among the items that people seek is an addictive pain reliever used to fight depression. Four months after Israel waged a war here to stop Hamas rocket fire and two years after Hamas took full control of this coastal strip, Gaza is like an island adrift.

George Galloway stoned in Egypt

Times

Anne Barrowclough and David Byers

A convoy led by the maverick MP George Galloway carrying supplies for Gaza has been attacked in Egypt, apparently injuring several people travelling in his party.

The convoy, carrying aid worth £1 million, was pelted with stones and vandalised with anti-Hamas slogans after it stopped overnight in El-Arish, a small town around 28 miles from the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

The attack comes weeks after Mr Galloway, of the Respect party, described Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak as a “tyrant” and “criminal” and demanded that he be overthrown by his country’s armed forces.

Tony Blair makes first trip to Gaza Strip

Times

James Hider, Middle East Correspondent

Tony Blair made his first visit to the Gaza Strip today, 18 months after being appointed the international community’s Middle East envoy and six weeks after Israel ended its devastating campaign against the Islamist-ruled enclave.

Egypt opens Gaza border crossing

 AL JAZEERA INTERNATIONALThe border between Gaza and  Egypt, the sole crossing that bypasses Israel, has been opened for three days to allow the passage of students and the sick.

The Rafah crossing was opened around 9am local time (0700 GMT) on Sunday and was expected to be open for three days, Adel Zurub, a Hamas border official, said.

Al Jazeera’s Todd Baer, reporting form Rafah, said it was a day of celebration.

“The mood here for the first time in an awful long time is one of great happiness for those few who are being able to cross the border,” he said.

Israel says it will unseal Gaza only if soldier is freed

By Isabel Kershner

Thursday, February 19, 2009

JERUSALEM: Israel’s security cabinet voted Wednesday to make the opening of Israel’s border crossings with Gaza, a central Hamas demand for any long-term cease-fire arrangement, conditional on the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas. The cabinet decision, widely seen as a hardening of the Israeli stance, seemed to dim the prospects for a quick conclusion to the Egyptian-brokered talks for a consolidated truce. But the unanimous vote merely formalized the position that was being articulated with increasing clarity in recent days by the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and seemed more focused on expediting a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas for the soldier’s return.

‘Hamas agrees to demand that Schalit deal precede cease-fire’

Feb. 17, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Hamas has no objection to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s demand that a deal for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Scahlit be finalized before a cease-fire agreement, as long as Israel releases all of the prisoners on Hamas’s list, a senior member of the organization was quoted by the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat as saying Tuesday.

Israel opens the Gaza border for 25,000 carnations, bound for Europe

By Isabel Kershner

Friday, February 13, 2009

JERUSALEM: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Israel allowed the export of a shipment of flowers from Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday for the first time in about a year, Israeli officials said. The flowers, destined for Europe, are hardly a token of affection between Israel and the Islamic rulers of the Palestinian enclave, but they could portend a possible thaw in commercial relations in the context of a cease-fire.

Hamas: 18-month Gaza truce will be in place within three days

Feb. 12, 2009
BRENDA GAZZAR and HERB KEINON , THE JERUSALEM POST

Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said on Thursday that his organization supports an 18-month truce with Israel.

Abu Marzouk, in Cairo for truce talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, told Al-Jazeera that Hamas was waiting for Israel to approve the details of the emerging agreement.

‘No reasonable solutions being offered’

Feb. 7, 2009
Jpost.com staff and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST

PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad on Saturday voiced pessimism about this week’s Israeli general elections. “I know of no Israeli politician willing to offer a reasonable solution to the conflict,” he told reporters in Ramallah. “They’re all interested in a partial solution, to improve the appearance of the occupation while they continue building settlements.”

Les négociations continuent autour de Gaza

LE MONDE

Les discussions sous l’égide de l’Egypte entre Israël et le Hamas continuaient en fin de semaine pour tenter d’établir une trêve durable. Jeudi 5 février, le chassé-croisé entre les deux délégations, qui refusent toujours de se rencontrer directement, s’est ainsi poursuivi au Caire.