Bnei Brak residents were shocked on Thursday when they discovered rats gnawed through Torah scrolls and other sacred books amid an increasingly worsening infestation of rats in the Ultra-Orthodox city already causing a 2-year-old girl to be bitten in her bed in the middle of the night.
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The Bnei Brak municipality earlier denied there was a major problem and claimed that the city was clean. Only after significant public pressure was an effort put in place to mitigate the problem. The city council approved a "strategic plan for general infestation," but according to residents, nothing has been done on the ground, and the infestation is getting worse.
"It's unbearable. It's simply getting worse. I was devastated when I discovered 20 gnawed Torah scrolls. Someone must put an end to this grotesque reality in the city," M., a Torah scribe said.
The Municipality said it was taking action to eradicate the rat infestation in all parts of the city out of concern for the residents. "A comprehensive and aggressive campaign against it in public areas was launched this week. The crux of the plan is massive extermination and consistent destruction of nests and breeding areas of the pests, and expanding and intensifying the city's supervision of extermination works. Currently, the municipality's teams are working with a wide range of tools to address the infestation."