West Bank ready to receive Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria

Ramallah, Sep 7: The Palestinian Foreign Ministry stressed on Sunday readiness to accommodate Palestinian refugees into the West Bank, particularly those fleeing war-torn Syria.

The ministry said in a statement that "despite limited and humble resources, we are ready to open all Palestinians' houses to welcome those who venture into a new refuge, or risk the unknown," Xinhua reported.

It added that the Palestinians have the right to live in their homeland and not in exile or turning from one refugee camp to another.

Meanwhile, Israeli politicians expressed opposing views on how Israel should handle the Syrian refugees' crisis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while Israel has helped wounded Syrian in the past four years amid the Syrian civil war, it could not take in Syrian refugees into its territory.

"Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of the refugees from Syria and Africa. but Israel is a small country, a very small country that lacks demographic and geographic depth," Netanyahu said in the weekly cabinet meeting, according to a statement issued by his office.

However, opposition leader Isaac Herzog turned to social media to express his objection. "The prime minister of the Jewish nation can't close his heart and the gates when people are fleeing for the lives, pursued by hunters, with babies in their hands."

Israel considers the issue of refugees as the main obstacle of the peace process, while the Palestinians see that the obstacle is the settlements Israel is building on the Palestinian lands.

IANS