Leaders in southern Israel skeptical of Gaza cease-fire

"Tomorrow I'm going to bury two of my friends... just as I am going to bury my trust in the Israeli government," says Eshkol head.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
A MORTAR SHELL created this crater in the middle of an alternative medicine center in the Eshkol regional council. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
A MORTAR SHELL created this crater in the middle of an alternative medicine center in the Eshkol regional council.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Various leaders of the rocket-battered regions in Israel's South have expressed their skepticism and frustration in light of the Gaza cease-fire that took effect Tuesday night.
"I have lost total confidence in the Israeli government and the leadership that declares slogans which you eventually realize are just slogans," the head of the Eshkol Regional Council, Haim Yellin, told Army Radio on Wednesday.
Mortar strikes killed two residents of the rocket-bombarded Eshkol region Tuesday before the cease-fire went into effect.
"Tomorrow I'm going to bury two of my friends, and I am going to bury them just as I am going to bury my trust in the Israeli government," Yellin said.
He has called on residents of his constituency who evacuated communities on the Gaza periphery to wait at least two days following the onset of the cease-fire before returning home, to ensure that the quiet persists.
Meanwhile, Tamir Idan - the head of the Sdot Negev Regional Council - told the radio station that he was weary of the cease-fire although it has so far held.
He added that his residents were also still afraid to return to their homes bordering the Gaza Strip.
"We'll see what happens in the coming days, I don't think the cease-fire will last," he told Army Radio on Wednesday morning.
Yair Farjun, head of the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, criticized the government's response to the bombardment of strikes on the South in contrast to its reaction to attacks on central Israel.
"The moment the center of the country is bombarded, the state responds to Hamas with fury; when the southern region is bombarded, it is treated as with tweezers for a thorn in the toe," he told the military radio station.