Photo Credit: Miriam Alster / Flash 90
View of the Soroka hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. May 12, 2015.

The Cabinet has approved the deployment of police at every public hospital in the country.

The decision, announced Sunday, follows a wave of violence that has taken place in several hospitals across the country.

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“We’ve just approved my plan to place police stations in hospitals across the country,” Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz tweeted. “The violence that is being directed at medical teams must be stamped out and quickly — and that is exactly what we’re doing.

“Zero tolerance for violence in hospitals.”

Medical personnel have been attacked and beaten by family members, friends and in some cases even by patients themselves. One of the most severe cases, several weeks ago, was that of a Jerusalem hospital in which medical staff were attacked by the family of a patient who had died. The attackers also wrecked the intensive care unit.

The plan, budgeted at an annual NIS 20 million, calls for a permanent police presence in 28 public hospitals and medical centers, and will include 48 designated personnel.

However, police said they can only begin to implement the plan sometime after the first of next year.


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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.