The High Court on Monday threw out a petition demanding that the Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz be dismissed from their positions. The petition sought to blame them personally for the deaths of Israelis during the Carmel forest fire, claiming that it was their policies that made Israel unprepared to deal with a tragedy of that proportion.

The court completely rejected the petition, and required the plaintiffs to pay court costs of the defendants.