On Sunday, Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzchak-Halevi announced that he is filing a lawsuit against the man from the north of Israel who vacationed at a hotel in Eilat for three days, knowing that he was positive for COVID-19. The threatened lawsuit is in the amount of NIS 250,000 for damages suffered by the city and the tourism industry as a result of the man’s actions.

In a letter that was physically handed to the culprit after he was caught by police in the city and forcibly evicted with his family, Attorney Ophir Miller PhD., wrote in the name of the mayor: “The fact that you decided to leave your home, stay in a hotel and walk around in public spaces of Eilat is a direct violation of the isolation that you were under and presents a direct risk of infecting others and spreading the coronavirus and endangering public safety.”

The letter also stated that the city invests large amounts of money in an effort to protect the safety of those who travel there in order to facilitate the tourism industry in the city, especially during the current economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

“The city is not planning to allow this issue to pass regarding the actions of the man in question, and it is our plan to extract every ounce of punishment that can be obtained under the law in all of its stringencies,” the mayor said.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)