{"id":21575,"date":"2018-11-08T01:23:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T01:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21575"},"modified":"2018-11-08T01:23:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T01:23:20","slug":"syrian-regime-wants-palestinian-refugees-back-in-yarmouk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21575","title":{"rendered":"Syrian regime wants Palestinian refugees back in Yarmouk"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1400991\/middle-east\" readability=\"90\">\n<p>\nBEIRUT: The Syrian regime has created a plan for the return of Palestinians to the war-ravaged Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus, the deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn an interview with Beirut-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, Faisal Al-Meqdad said there was a \u201cplan for the return of all refugees to the camp,\u201d home to some 160,000 Palestinians before Syria\u2019s war broke out in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe did not specify how or when people would start returning.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Syrian regime and allied forces retook the neighborhood in May from Daesh, pushing the militants out of their only bastion in the capital.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cEfforts are being made to clear (the camp) of mines left by&#8230; Daesh,\u201d said Meqdad.<\/p>\n<p>\nFounded in 1957 with tents for Palestinians who fled or were ousted from their homes with the establishment of Israel, Yarmouk grew into a bustling neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn 2012, around 140,000 residents fled as clashes raged.<\/p>\n<p>\nThose who stayed faced severe shortages of food and medicine under a withering years-long regime siege.<\/p>\n<p>\nDaesh terrorists entered the area in 2015, bringing further suffering to remaining residents until being forced out in May.<\/p>\n<p>\nFive months on, only a few residents have managed to return.<\/p>\n<p>\nMeqdad said Damascus wanted to dispel any \u201crumors\u201d that Palestinians had been displaced.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe once-busy district is now a ghost town piled with rubble and mangled steel rods.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said its 23 premises in the camp including 16 schools are damaged, but that it would not fix any unless the government officially allowed residents to return.<\/p>\n<p>\nUN and Palestinian officials have criticized Damascus for not giving the go-ahead for reconstruction plans or officially allowing residents to return.<\/p>\n<p>\nOn Monday, Meqdad said the Syrian regime would not object to a \u201crole for the Palestinian Authority or UNRWA in rebuilding the camp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nMore than 360,000 people have been killed since Syria\u2019s multi-faceted war erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIRUT: The Syrian regime has created a plan for the return of Palestinians to the war-ravaged Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus, the deputy foreign minister said Tuesday. In an interview with Beirut-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, Faisal Al-Meqdad said there was a \u201cplan for the return of all refugees to the camp,\u201d home to some 160,000&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}