{"id":25608,"date":"2018-12-14T22:22:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T22:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25608"},"modified":"2018-12-14T22:22:56","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T22:22:56","slug":"syrian-refugees-remain-skeptical-about-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25608","title":{"rendered":"Syrian refugees remain skeptical about return"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"146\">\n<p>\nRAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli forces kept up a manhunt on Friday for a Palestinian who shot dead two soldiers in the occupied West Bank, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced right-wing pressure for a strong response.<\/p>\n<p>\nThursday\u2019s shooting was the latest incident shattering months of relative calm in the West Bank, where 400,000 Israelis live in settlements alongside more than 2.5 million Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>\nIt was the third deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank in two months and set off demonstrations by settler groups against Netanyahu, whose right-wing government depends on their support.<\/p>\n<p>\nIsraeli media speculated on Friday about the possibility of a new Palestinian \u201cintifada,\u201d or uprising, against Israel\u2019s occupation of the West Bank.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn Thursday\u2019s attack, a gunman got out of his car and opened fire on soldiers and others outside a settlement in the central West Bank, killing two and seriously injuring another two Israelis before fleeing.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn response the army locked down the city of Ramallah, home to secular Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, while calling in reinforcements.<\/p>\n<p>\nClashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces erupted in different parts of the West Bank, including inside Ramallah during army raids.<\/p>\n<p>\nSettlers shouting for revenge threw stones at Palestinian vehicles, while an Arab bus driver was beaten by ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Modiin Illit settlement, according to Israeli media reports.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn overnight raids, the army said it arrested 40 Palestinians, most of them affiliated to the Islamist movement Hamas which has claimed responsibility for two recent shooting attacks.<\/p>\n<p>\nIt has not yet claimed Thursday\u2019s attack, though Israeli officials point the finger of blame in its direction.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe army did not say it had made arrests linked directly to the latest attack.<\/p>\n<p>\nAt a checkpoint near the Beit El settlement on Friday morning, a soldier was moderately wounded after a man hit him with a rock before fleeing, the army said.<\/p>\n<p>\nFriday threatened to be another tense day with Palestinian movements, including Hamas, calling for protests in the West Bank after weekly prayers.<\/p>\n<p>\nIsrael has controlled the West Bank since seizing it in a 1967 war.<\/p>\n<p>\nSettlements are considered illegal by the international community and are seen as one of the greatest obstacles to peace, though Israel disputes this. Hamas, for its part, has controlled the Gaza Strip since seizing it from Abbas\u2019 forces in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>\nWhile Abbas\u2019 Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, Hamas cells still operate in the territory.<\/p>\n<p>\nOn Thursday, Hamas claimed responsibility for two shooting attacks that killed three Israelis, including a baby. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday that the West Bank had \u201copened a new page\u201d in the movement\u2019s conflict with the Jewish state.<\/p>\n<p>\nNetanyahu\u2019s coalition government, which has only a one-seat majority in Parliament, relies on the support of pro-settler parties.<\/p>\n<p>\nRight-wing protesters in Jerusalem late on Thursday booed Netanyahu, while an MP from the far-right Jewish Home urged him to close all West Bank roads to Palestinians or have \u201cblood on his hands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nHugh Lovatt, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the situation was reminiscent to the buildup to the 2014 Gaza war.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWhat adds further danger is that we are heading into elections in Israel in 2019, so Netanyahu will have to take a more forceful hand,\u201d Lovatt told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cHe has long run on his security credentials, saying he keeps Israel safe, and his only real challenge comes from the right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nNetanyahu, whose Likud bloc heads the government, responded on Thursday by announcing new measures to support settlements, but Yediot Aharonot newspaper said he would need to respond forcefully.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWhen the settler lobby raises an outcry, the Likud ministers break into a sweat,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli forces kept up a manhunt on Friday for a Palestinian who shot dead two soldiers in the occupied West Bank, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced right-wing pressure for a strong response. Thursday\u2019s shooting was the latest incident shattering months of relative calm in the West Bank, where 400,000 Israelis live&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25608","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\/25608","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=25608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}