MK Silvan Shalom said during a tour of Haifa with fellow Likud members that "Haifa is a strategic target of the first degree for the enemy."

According to him, "IDF's strategic window is getting smaller. The delegations are already arriving and we don't have a lot of time.  I don't reject short-term deployment of an international force in the south so that the Lebanese can deploy their own forces." (Attila Somfalvi)