‘The house could’ve burned as well’: Residents slam hostage activists after reservist’s car torched

Hebrew media reports that the car torched this morning in Jerusalem by activists for a hostage deal belongs to a couple with three young children, including three-month-old twins, with the father having served over 260 days of reserve IDF duty and being set to head to Gaza next week following the latest mass round of callups.

“Our car is gone. We support the hostages and the families, but this causes hate,” the mother, Tamar Bar Shai, is quoted as saying by Channel 12 news.

Speaking to the Ynet news site, Bar Shai says three car seats for the children have been burnt, after her husband tried to move the car before it went up in flames.

“The tree started catching fire and the whole building adjacent to us was evacuated. People were taken out to the street in their underwear due to the danger,” she said, lamenting that she will have to drop off her kids at daycares on foot this week.

Another resident of the capital’s Rehavia neighborhood, Talya Levavi Ehrlich, tells Channel 12 that around 6:30 a.m., tires were burned in several spots near her home, causing smoke to come in through her window.

“One of the firefighters said that had the trees not been wet from the night’s dew, the house could have been burned as well,” she says. “I don’t understand why a mass protest must happen in a residential neighborhood with narrow roads.”

Several more residents urge authorities to do more to prevent their daily lives from being disrupted, accusing them of not doing enough to date.

The frequent protests in Rehavia happen near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home.