Over a dozen ministers and Members of Knesset visited the northern Druze town Majdal Shams on Saturday and Sunday, after the deadly rocket attack that left at least 11 children dead and dozens wounded.
Ministers who visited included Economy Minister Nir Barkat (Likud), Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman (Likud), Development of the Negev and Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit), Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer.
Members of Knesset who visited included opposition leader MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) along with four Yesh Atid MKs, and National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz.
Some MKs gave statements at the site of the explosion.
“The children who died in this soccer field could have been the children of any one of us,” Lapid said. “It is the state’s job to keep children safe. Children should not die in wars between adults. The state failed, the government failed,” Lapid said, adding that “the response will be severe and will reverberate across the Middle East.”
Barkat said that he expected a “change of reality” from the government, in the form of a shift from a “policy of containment” to a “painful attack” against the state of Lebanon, which “enables Hezbollah’s attacks from its territory.”
Locals upset with MKs
Some residents were unhappy with the visits, and voiced accusations against Barkat, Silman, and Smotrich. One resident accused Barkat and Silman of “abandoning” the north, and only coming to visit after an attack had already occurred.
Ynet reported on Sunday that the chairman of the Druze authorities’ forum, Jaber Jadvan, had sent a letter to MKs asking them not to attend the funerals of the children who were killed. According to the report, Jadvan wrote that “because of the sensitivity of the situation, we ask you not to turn the massacre into a political event. We are requesting a quiet religious funeral according to Druze custom.”
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