NORTH Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum toured stormed-damaged areas in the North on Sunday, including Katzrin, the Golan regional council, and the Hermon and Safed regional councils. According to the news website Local, Kirschenbaum said the ministry had raised NIS 30 million for partial compensation of local authorities for repairing the initial damage caused by the storm. The damage is estimated to be worth some NIS 73 million, not including infrastructure repair and pruning. During her visit, the minister also addressed the issue of missiles that were recently fired into the region from Lebanon. “The goal is to take care of the citizens via the local regional councils,” Local quoted her as saying. She also complimented the local authorities on their preparedness for the storm and on responding appropriately to the needs of their citizens. Head of the Golan Regional Council, Eli Malka, thanked the ministry for its assistance and noted that another NIS 880,000 would be needed for water pumps, off-road vehicles and generators, in preparation for the next storm. Woman sustains burns from Tiberias gas station explosion A northern resident was burned on Sunday from a gasoline pump explosion at a gas station in Tiberias, the Local website reported. A preliminary investigation found that the explosion was caused by a cell phone that caught fire. The woman, 67, who is a resident of the Tiberias area, was taken to Poriya Hospital. The Local website quoted head of ER Dr. Eran Tal Or, as saying that the woman arrived with first degree burns to her face and with singed hair. Since she had inhaled smoke, the doctors were also checking whether she has suffered respiratory burns. The patient said that she had gone to refuel, turned off her engine and requested an oil and water check. Her cellphone was in her bag which was inside the car. She left the car to find a cloth to clean the windshield, and when she bent down to lift up the windshield wiper, she heard an explosion and saw fire. “The blast caused me to fly toward the car... I'm lucky that it ended this way, it's possible that if I had stayed in the car it would have ended differently,” she said. CENTER Tel Aviv Arts Council presents tour of Central Bus Station As part of an art tour series, the Tel Aviv Arts Council is inviting the public to take part in a tour of the city's Central Bus Station. “It's complex, ugly, monstrous, dirty, mysterious, and took over 25 years to build, but when Tel Aviv's new Central Bus Station was opened by late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1993, it held the title as the biggest bus station in the world until finally eclipsed by India in 2010,” the invitation reads. The tour will explore why the tiny State of Israel decided to build such a huge bus station and who designed it. The council invites members of the public to “travel inside the belly of the beast” with an expert guide, also exploring the 45 percent of the building that is unoccupied, discussing the architecture, visiting the station's Chinatown as well as an underground bat cave and atomic bomb shelter. The tour will also address future and past attempts to rehabilitate the station with art, theater and community projects. The tour will be running on Monday January 6, between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and tickets costs NIS 32. The tour is part of a monthly series, which the council says aims to both educate and entertain. Registration at https://TelAvivArtsBusStation. eventbrite.com Man critically injured in Bnei Brak shooting Police suspected an assassination attempt took place in Bnei Brak on Sunday night, where a man who is known by police was shot on a street in and suffered critical wounds. He was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. Bus hits, kills 71-year-old woman in Tel Aviv A bus ran over and killed a 71-yearold pedestrian in Tel Aviv last weekend. Magen David Adom paramedics provided medical treatment at the scene, but were forced to pronounce the woman's death. SOUTH Eilat recruits local volunteers for earthquake emergency rescue unit The Eilat municipality announced this week that as part of routine preparations for emergencies, it had called on city residents to volunteer for the urban rescue unit, which would be called upon in the case of an earthquake. Eighteen Eilat residents responded to this call, including pensioners, security officers, employees of the Center of Mariculture, staff from the Eilat Economic Society, and others. The volunteers underwent special training, which prepared them for providing an immediate response to an earthquake, including rescuing people from buildings, providing first aid and extinguishing fires. The urban rescue unit was established at the joint initiative of the Home Front Command and the Eilat municipality, out of the city's need for immediate local aid due to its geographical remoteness. “A high magnitude earthquake is a natural phenomenon that has occurred in the past in our region, and which according to all experts, may occur again in the future. Eilat is located near one of the three main foci for the occurrence of earthquakes in Israel and consequently, the municipality... recognizes the importance and great value of timely preparations,” said Ilan Hadida, the head municipal security officer. He added that the geographic distance and the city's seismic location of the city means that it must rely on local forces and volunteers, and thus the earthquake rescue unit is extremely important. Father and two sons arrested on suspicion of assault of family member's boyfriend Police arrested a 55-year-old resident of the South on suspicion of assaulting his niece's boyfriend, together with his two sons, aged 16 and 21. During an investigation, police found that the girl's mother did not like her daughter's boyfriend, and asked her brother to threaten him into leaving her. The father and his sons were all taken in for questioning. Parents' payments to Beersheba nursery disappear A nursery teacher reported last week that NIS 3,500 that had been kept at the nursery and were reserved for the children's activities had gone missing, according to the Local website. The teacher submitted a complaint to the Beersheba police station regarding the missing sum of money, without which, she said, the children would not be able to receive all the intended enrichment activities that were planned for the duration of the year. During the investigation, she told police that a 17-year-old girl from the Diaspora who had been doing national service was seen a few days earlier near the cash box with a torn bag in her hand. When she was asked about the bag, she allegedly began to stutter and mumble. Police found the girl and took her for questioning, during which she told officers that she saw there was cash in the box and took some due to economic distress and heavy debts in light of personal circumstances. She said she regretted her actions and would try to return the stolen money. She was released home under restrictive conditions.
