Opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Thursday protests over the economic slowdown could soon turn violent as restrictions to contain the coronavirus are reimposed and state assistance for the jobless lags.
Alarmed by a new spike in COVID-19 cases, conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week ordered a slew of businesses to shut back down and disbanded some children's summer camps, dashing hopes for relief from record 21% unemployment.
"We are talking to people who are becoming more and more desperate and angry, who feel, and rightly so, that the country has deserted them at their hardest hour," Lapid told Reuters. "We are trying to be responsible...to calm things down, telling people, 'You know violence is not the answer'," he said.