Coalition could fall after surge in violence
Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is looking increasingly unstable after far-Right MPs threatened to withdraw their support unless the Israeli prime minister agrees to new security measures amid a spate of violence in the occupied West Bank.
In one of the bloodiest weeks in the territories this year, two Israeli soldiers were killed along with a three-day-old Israeli baby who was born by caesarean after his mother was shot by Palestinian gunmen but died in hospital.
The Israeli military said it killed two Palestinian gunmen as well as an attacker who stabbed two policemen in Jerusalem. Two more Palestinians – a teenage boy and a 60-year-old man – were shot dead in the city of Ramallah.
The turmoil comes as Australia announced yesterday it will follow the US in moving its embassy to Jerusalem, but only if a peace settlement can be agreed between Israel and Palestine. A solution to the conflict appeared to be as elusive as ever after violence flared in the West Bank. The attacks have left Netanyahu under pressure from the Right wing of his coalition government to take action.
Two hardline MPs from the Jewish Home party have warned the prime minister they will topple his government unless he increases security barriers on West Bank roads and passes legislation to benefit Jewish settlements.
‘‘If [Palestinians] continue to move about freely on the roads and to slaughter us like ducks there is no justification for this government’s continuing to -exist for even a single additional day,’’ said Bezalel Smotrich. – Telegraph Group