Approximately 1,000 voters who are in quarantine for exposure to the coronavirus on Monday faced a lengthy wait to cast their ballot at specially designated polling stations erected to allow them to exercise their democratic right to vote in the country's third election in less than a year.
Long lines and overcrowding sent many of them home before they cast their ballots. The Central Elections Committee blamed the delays on a lack of disinfecting stations at the dedicated locations.
As a result, voting hours at the 16 specially designated stations will be extended by extra two hours, remaining open until 7pm instead of 5pm.
Ofer Hillel, a resident of Herzliya just north of Tel Aviv, has been quarantined at home since Thursday when he returned from Italy.
Arriving in the neighboring town of Kfar Sava for the dedicated polling station for quarantined voters, Hillel found that there was no organized queue.
"People have been arguing about who came first and each person has been taking about 10 minutes to complete the process, so I have been waiting for over two hours," he said.
He saw many people had given up and gone home.
"I would have gone as well but my wife insists it is important to vote so we are staying," he said.
The voting station catering to the quarantined citizens in Tel Aviv was also experiencing delays.
"I've been here for over an hour and am about to go home," said Dana Almogi.
"With all due respect I am supposed to be under quarantine and standing around like this is just frustrating," she said, noting that had she not been forced to use a dedicated polling station, the entire process would have taken no more than five minutes.
Some of the quarantined voters who turned up in Holon were quite happy to be out of their homes, however.
"I intend to take my time," said Sima, who went into quarantine after she returned from a trip to Thailand.
"The sun is out and after being cooped up at home I am in no hurry to leave," she said.
"We have been standing in line for two hours and I don't think this has been organized well at all," said Ze'ev, who had already spent 12 days quarantined at home after his return from Thailand.
"Maybe people just wanted to get out of the house but many are here and waiting a long time to exercise their right to vote," he said.
Berta Mizrahi, aged 85, was in quarantine due to a trip to Venice and was making the best of the long lines and catching up with neighbors and others in her situation.
"There were 85 people in line ahead of me when I arrived and nothing has moved since," she said, "so I found a chair and am chatting with neighbors trying not to get too close to them because of the coronavirus."
Meanwhile, 18 people are quarantined at the Sheba Medical Center and will not be voting Monday, among them are eight people who were on the Diamond Princess cruise off the coast of Japan and are still at risk of developing symptoms.
Roman Rovnov expressed the groups' frustration at the decision by health officials to deny them the opportunity to vote. "All the people quarantined at home have 16 polling stations they can go to, why can't we have one?" he asks.
Earlier Monday, police were called to the quarantine polling station in Holon after local residents disrupted the vote claiming concerns for their health due to the concentration of people infected with coronavirus in their community.