Northern Israel residents call on lawmakers for urgent protection amid security gaps

‘Visit near kindergartens and you will see sandbags that are meant to be hidden behind,’ a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Szold exclaimed.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

A joint meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee and the State Audit Committee exposed gaps in protection for residents of northern Israel on Monday.

Officials prioritized the immediate safety of communities near the Lebanese border that were not evacuated.

Momi Bar Kalifa, chairman of Moshav Manot vented frustration at the government and the army.

“When you come to visit us, the army does not give you permission to move around even with an armored vehicle. But our children? No problem moving there all day.

“We live in terrible hardship, without a livelihood, without camps for children, forced to collect charity to survive. For months we only hear talk and receive visits as if we are a petting zoo, but there are no real solutions. Children are locked up in their homes without the possibility of summer camps. We came to hear practical and immediate solutions and no more empty promises.”

The anger was echoed by Aharon Gamzu, a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Szold and member of the Forum Magen Otef Lebanon, a non-governmental organization advocating for the non-evacuated residents of the north.

He said there was no adequate place for children to shelter during an attack and described as “disconnected from reality” army claims of adequate protection.

“Visit near kindergartens and you will see sandbags that are meant to be hidden behind,” he exclaimed.

While roughly 80,000 residents of northern Israel evacuated their homes in October when Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones, many did not.

Many who stayed were elderly, for whom evacuating was simply too complex. Others remained for ideological reasons.

As the war dragged on, some evacuees returned to their homes despite the risks.

A further complication is that Hezbollah has been expanding the range of its barrages. The communities evacuated in October are within five kilometers of the border.

But in recent weeks, residents of Safed in the Galilee, the coastal cities of Nahariya and Akko, and Golan communities, among others, have experienced a surge in attacks.

“500,000 people whose lives are not alive – every decision you make every morning, to go to the health insurance fund and to the consumer, requires thought. We need to recognize that there is a population that is in a war zone and is threatened every day,” said the government’s coordinator for rehabilitating the north, former Israeli Navy commander Vice Adm. (res.) Eliezer Marom.

The hearing was Marom’s first encounter with lawmakers since his appointment.

“There are many pioneers in the Galilee living by ideology, but ideology has a cost. The queue for a CT scan is over a year. The incident in Majdal Shams, where injured people took an hour and a half to reach the hospital, is indicative of the broader issues,” he stressed.

David Suisa, head of the Defense Ministry’s Northern Horizon directorate addressed the impact of military activities and the financial aspects of the protection plan.

Northern Horizon is tasked with strengthening civil and security infrastructure in residential areas within nine kilometers of the Lebanese border.

According to Suisa, while most of the damage comes from fires, rocket strikes and neglect, one-quarter of the damage is due to Israeli military activity. “Additional funds are essential to complete protection projects,” Suisa insisted.

Gil Galeron, director of the Northern Defense Project, cited financial hurdles. The project is a government initiative to boost the structural integrity of northern residential buildings against war and natural disasters.

“Construction prices have skyrocketed since the war began. We need an additional 700 million shekels [$188 million] for protection in the area one to two kilometers from the border.”

According to Treasury official Eli Bing, the state budget had been amended post-war to allocate an additional 3.5 billion shekels ($940 million) for security and defense in the north and south.

“From this defense budget, 800 million shekels ($212 million) will be allocated annually,” he said.

Hezbollah leaders have said they will continue the attacks to prevent Israelis from returning to their homes. The attacks have killed 23 civilians and 18 soldiers.

Israeli officials have been calling for Hezbollah to be disarmed and removed from southern Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.