Police chief says force lacks manpower to handle ‘multi-front’ outbreak of violence

Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai warns that the police force is not prepared for a “multi-front” outbreak of violence across the country.

“Today we are much more prepared than we were in the past, during Guardian of the Walls [when violence broke out in several mixed Arab-Jewish cities], to deal with a large number of sites, stronger, more prepared, but we’re still not where we need to be,” Shabtai tells a hearing of the Knesset State Control Committee.

“We won’t be able to deal with such a scenario if there will be a multi-front incident in the entire State of Israel,” Shabtai adds, pointing to a lack of “manpower, resources, means and equipment” which are preventing the police from “rising to the occasion.”

Shabtai points out that the police station in Lod — which saw the most intensive violent clashes during the 2021 war — is missing 30% of its manpower, which amounts to 56 officers: “If the issue of salaries for Israel Police officers is not improved, I don’t see an improvement in the manpower situation,” he says.