Chairman Yisrael Eichler of the Knesset Public Inquiries Committee decided to lock the committee's hearing on huge fires and air pollution at waste sites around the city of Ashdod a few minutes after it began due to the absence of the director-general of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
MK Eichler told the participants, "It was agreed with the ministry that the director-general would appear so that we would receive answers from the official authority. If he does not arrive, it's a waste of the hearing's time. I am afraid to think that the health of the residents of the south is less important than the health of the residents of the center."