Israel State Comptroller slams gov't for failures at home

Israel’s State Comptroller, Matanyahu Engelman, yesterday accused the Israeli government of “failing on the home front”, after evacuating thousands of settlers from the south and north of the country, Anadolu news agency reported citing Israeli media.

Engelman, who is responsible for monitoring the government’s actions and policies, made the remarks during a meeting with settlers who had been evacuated from the northern and southern areas near Lebanon and the besieged Gaza Strip respectively, according to the Israeli Maariv newspaper.

“There is no justification for not having an economic plan and a coordinator to manage the crisis in the fourth week of the war,” Engelman said.

According to Maariv, Engelman has directed unusually harsh criticism of the government’s behaviour since the outbreak of the war, saying: “The evacuation of thousands of residents of the southern and northern communities from their homes is a major failure and defect, and there is no excuse that can justify it.”

“Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and the ministers must quickly turn things around and solve the problems immediately,” he added. Since Israel began bombing Gaza on 7 October, authorities  have evacuated tens of thousands of people from the settlements adjacent to Gaza in the south, and adjacent to southern Lebanon in the north.

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