JERUSALEM, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Israel's hospital and clinic doctors went on a two-day strike on Thursday morning, said the Israeli Medical Association (IMA).
The strike broke out following a severe incident of violence at a clinic in the city of Beer Yaakov in central Israel on Tuesday, in which a patient wounded a doctor with a hammer, according to the IMA and Israeli media.
This is the second doctor strike recently after the doctors went on a 24-hour strike on May 19 due to previous cases of violence against medical staff.
Following the previous strike, the Israeli government plans to place police in all hospitals in accordance with the doctors' demand, and the Finance Ministry announced a budget for this purpose. However, the decision has not yet been implemented, the IMA said.
The strike includes all public hospitals and clinics in Israel, with only urgent treatments and surgeries to be performed, according to the IMA, which represents about 95 percent of the doctors in the country.
"As long as there are no real immediate actions, we will intensify measures until it is understood that the violence in the health system is a real epidemic," said the IMA Chairman Zion Hagay.
On Wednesday, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the Israeli Ministry of Health launched a publicity campaign calling for uprooting violence against medical staff, a statement from the ministry said. ■
