Beitar Illit Mayor Meir Rubenstein on Tuesday evening denounced the decision to declare his city a restricted area following an increase in the number of cases of coronavirus.
“I strongly oppose the closure, which will do nothing and will only turn the city into an incubator of the virus. We have been begging for evacuation of patients for weeks now and we have a plan on the matter, but in vain. Instead, the Ministry of Health is working using sanctions and imposing restrictions, without acting to help take the patients out of town,” he said.
"The announcement of a closure that comes out at 11:00 p.m., when most of the city's residents are asleep, is a disgrace. The residents of Beitar Illit will wake up to a closed city tomorrow without having prepared to do so. I myself received the message through the media. The Ministry of Health's failures in dealing with the second wave are embodied in this scandalous decision," he added.