Gershon Mesika
Gershon MesikaIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The Head of the Samaria Regional Council, Gershon Mesika, has instructed the caretakers at day care centers to call parents if their children have not showed up at the centre by 9:00 a.m.

The measure is meant to prevent tragedies like the ones that occurred twice in the last two days, in which babies died because their parents forgot them in their cars. Both tragedies occurred in the Binyamin region: one in Dolev and the other in Shiloh.

"We feel the pain of Binyamin and of all of the families to whom this terrible tragedy occurred, and we are trying to prevent the next tragedy from happening, at least in our region,” said Mesika. "We call upon the caretakers in the day care centers and the nursery schools to contact the parents if the child has not arrived by 9:00, either by text message or by any other means of communication. This is a life-saving operation.”

The Council said it is also looking into providing incentives to encourage the day care staff to contact parents in these circumstances.