Gaza border evacuees: ‘Our home is still a warzone’

“We are traumatized, there’s still a war going on,” says evacuee who may be forced to return to Gaza-adjacent kibbutz after government subsidies end.

By World Israel News Staff

Residents of three Gaza-adjacent kibbutzim filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, objecting to a government decision which would end subsidies for their lodging outside of their home communities.

Since October 7th, residents of Nir Am, Mefalsim, and Erez have been evacuated from their homes, staying in hotels and other temporary accommodations paid for by the government.

All three communities are located less than one kilometer from the Gaza border, and have been subjected to ongoing rocket fire during the war.

But the Israeli government has defined those communities as “safe,” and has informed evacuees that subsidies for their hotel stays will end on August 15th, effectively evicting them.

Despite the continued fighting in the Strip, the government has reasoned that there are no security issues preventing residents from returning to their homes, but the evacuees strongly object.

The government cited the fact that no residents of Nir Am, Mefalsim, or Erez were murdered or kidnapped during the October 7th terror onslaught as one reason why residents should no longer be entitled to lodging outside of their communities.

In their filing, the evacuees responded that terrorists infiltrated their communities, engaging in fierce gun battles with local security squads.

“Only by luck, fate, and heroism was our fate different from that of Kibbutz Be’eri and Nir Oz,” they wrote.

Ehud, an evacuee, told Mako that “the war in the area is far from over.”

He stressed that residents “will not return until the war is over,” adding that they “need rehabilitation after the crazy trauma we went through, when our friends from neighboring kibbutzim were burned and kidnapped, when we sat for over 24 hours of terror in our safe rooms.”

The evacuees are asking for the government to continue subsiding their housing, along with economic support and other help, for at least another year.