NEW YORK, October 27. /TASS/. Many residents of Israel are dissatisfied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government's response to the aftermath of an attack by militants of the Palestinian Hamas movement on the country's territory, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

According to it, the criticism is primarily aimed at the failure of the authorities to provide support to people who fled the war zone. "Any support that the refugees are getting right now is completely grassroots. Absolutely nothing by the state," clinical psychologist, Tel Aviv University professor Ruvi Dar, who helps the victims of the Palestinian militants' attack, told the agency. "The government is completely incompetent," he added.

"Most residents have evacuated, and their needs <...> are enormous," AP cites the opinion of Yossi Keren, the head of the regional council in Sha’ar HaNegev. Citizens of southern Israel "didn’t get any help," while "the government wasn’t functioning." Furthermore, according to the agency, polls have shown that the popularity of Netanyahu and his ministers "has collapsed." Ostensibly, this is due to the fact that the head of the Cabinet "said nothing of the sort for weeks" for what happened. The discontent of the population is reinforced by the fact that the prime minister has not made public visits to hospitals and has not met with the victims' families, AP says.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also underway in the West Bank.