Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu and expressed anger that he had not spoken directly with the citizens of Sderot.
“Have you once heard him speaking with citizens of Sderot? Talking with them, telling them if they have security or not? Tell the truth,” he said to Kan.
He commented on the cutbacks to the new plan for evacuees, claiming: “They cut all the support in half, and said deal with it. They told me that it would be enough for them. Who are you to say if it will be enough for them? They are disconnected. I say to the Finance Minister, you need to provide the best possible civilian response for everyone, and not send us officials to build a theory and tell us that the theory will work - it won't.”
He emphasized the Prime Minister's responsibility to speak directly to the citizens: “If he wants us to care for the residents, he needs to give us the conditions to do so, and if he knows how to do this, he should stop acting like a fool and misleading them and stop switching one grant for another.”
“Netanyahu, stop hiding, take charge! The Finance Minister is starting to criticize the prime minister, and even officials in the Finance Ministry,” Davidi claimed.
Governors of regions near Gaza spent the night at the Prime Minister's office. A joint statement from them read: “We will not leave here until the Prime Minister tells us clearly that our citizens can return home safely.”