Approximately 900 residents of Ashdod protested in Jerusalem on Wednesday and demanded that the government implement a 2002 decision to build a hospital in their city.  The hospital was to have been built within five years, but five years later, construction has yet to begin.

Protestors called for the government to begin building a hospital immediately.  Some carried signs saying, “Olmert is Spilling the Blood of the Residents of Ashdod.”  Ashdod is home to roughly 235,000 people, who must travel to Ashkelon or Rehovot in case of a medical emergency—a trip that can take up to 50 minutes.