"The most encouraging thing is that the residents' feeling of security is much stronger than it was a year ago," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
said Monday morning during a tour of the Shlomi local council in northern Israel.
At the beginning of the tour, Olmert, along with Shlomi council head Gabi Na'aman, viewed an old Hizbullah post that used to overlook the town. The two later visited a local bomb shelter.
The prime minister asked Na'aman if the residents' sense of security had changed since the war. Na'aman said, "We are no longer observed daily. Every time we would open our mouths, we knew that someone was listening to us."
Olmert checks on shelters (photo: Vadim Daniel)
Afterwards, Olmert met with local council members and asked them about the condition of the public and private bomb shelters.
The council head informed the prime minister that despite the fact that almost a year has passed since the war, and despite funds that were promised, the shelters were still not fit to be stayed in for over three or four days.
"Afterwards, people will just have to get out and freshen up; there are not enough appliances or a proper supply of goods that would allow a long stay in the shelter," said Na'aman.
Another discussion was held in the matter of private shelters, and the government representatives stated that in the near future a law would be applied that will allow local authorities to supervise activity within private shelters.
After his Shlomi visit, Olmert arrived at the Bedouin community of Arab al-Aramsha, which was also under threat during the war.
Olmert promised the residents that evaluation of the shelters' situation will be complete within the next few months. The residents told Olmert that 61 shelters were needed in the village, but thanked him for removing Hizbullah
from the border.
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