Occupied Jerusalem – Many Israeli families who were evacuated from settlements and “kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope and the Western Negev with the beginning of the “Al-Aqsa Typhoon“, expressed their desire not to return to the “envelope areas”. This comes in the context of continued fighting and the failure of the Israeli army to “eliminate the Hamas movement”.
The Israeli government made a hasty decision to evacuate all the residents in the kibbutzim and settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, totaling 25, after the surprise attack launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” on October 7, 2023.
Under the decision made in accordance with emergency regulations, the area, which is 0 to 7 kilometers from the borders of Gaza Strip, was evacuated, with a total of 65,000 people evacuated. An additional 60,000 people were evacuated from the border towns with Lebanon in the Upper Galilee due to the mutual shelling between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.
In addition to the official data approved by the Israeli Ministry of Security, tens of thousands of residents of the Western Negev, Sderot, and Ashkelon moved out voluntarily and without being compulsory instructed by the Home Front Command. The population of this area near the envelope is more than 200,000.
Evacuation and Relocation Costs
In previous years, the Israeli government was expected to prepare a special system to evacuate tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of Israelis from the border areas to other towns in case of emergency during a war.
Indeed, a government plan was prepared and cost tens of millions of shekels, but it was put on hold. The economic affairs correspondent for “Yedioth Ahronoth” newspaper, Gad Lior, said “When the moment of truth came, it turned out that the plan known as the ‘civilian hotel’ was no longer in the required form and completely collapsed.”
Lior added, “The operation of evacuating tens of thousands of residents to hundreds of hotels and accommodation places, not to public institutions, community centers, and schools as planned, was implemented once it canceled the original plan, and so it has gone wrong until today.”
The cost of hosting a family of six in a hotel room reached approximately 45,000 shekels (12,000 dollars) monthly, while a family with two children received allowances of 18,000 shekels (4,800 dollars) monthly if not residing in a hotel.
According to the data of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, there are around 56,000 hotel rooms in Israel, and around 40,000 rooms are located far from the combat zones, where the residents were evacuated and relocated. Major hotel companies expect business results damage due to the war.
Forecasting the future is challenging as hotel owners do not know how long the evacuees from the border areas in the “Gaza envelope” and the Upper Galilee will stay in the hotels. The Israeli Ministry of Tourism stated in a brief statement that “there are evacuees who have been allocated places for temporary accommodation because their homes are still standing, but it is not clear how long they will actually stay in the hotels, and there are those whose homes have been destroyed and are looking for permanent solutions.”
Repatriation Plan
While the government ministries are preoccupied with the plan to return the evacuees to their homes, they have so far refrained from answering the question of what they will do with those who do not want to return to the envelope areas and the Western Negev.
To implement the “return plan,” the Israeli government established the “Takoma” directorate and allocated it to rebuild the “Gaza envelope”, earmarking a budget of 18 billion shekels (5 billion dollars) for 5 years, and made its mission to pave the way for the return of the evacuees.
According to the initial data documented by “The Marker” economic newspaper, based on talks with local communities in the south, about 20% of Israeli families, especially those with young children, who were evacuated since last October 7, have decided not to return to the “envelope areas” and are looking for alternative residences in distant towns away from the combat zones.
Fear of the Future
Mirav Arlazoroff, an economic affairs analyst at “The Marker” newspaper, believes that there is a desire for adults and youth to return, while families with young children are not interested in returning and are looking for stability in alternative areas.
Arlazoroff explained, “In the midst of continued fighting, and strengthening convictions among Israelis about the failure of the army to overthrow the rule of Hamas and eliminate its military arsenal, and the absence of a clear government plan to repatriate the evacuees and rebuild the envelope, even families willing to return find it difficult to adapt to the situation, especially as the situation becomes more difficult and uncertain over time.”
The economic affairs analyst compared the Israeli governments’ dealings with the eviction of settlers from the “Gush Katif” settlement complex in Gaza and Sinai, with the current government’s handling of the eviction of Israeli families from the “Gaza envelope”, stating that “The current government does not rely on perks, payments, and compensation to incentivize return to the envelope.”
In 2007, the cost of dismantling the settlement complex in Gaza exceeded 10 billion shekels (2.7 billion dollars), of which 6.5 billion shekels were allocated as a civilian cost to evacuate 1,800 settler families living there, meaning that more than half the cost went directly into the pockets of the evicted settlers.
Arlazoroff said, “Each family evacuated from Gush Katif during the disengagement received an average of 2 million shekels (550,000 dollars), in the belief that the government is obligated to continue reinforcing the settlement project and display generosity towards the evictees”, adding, “However, the Israeli government, in the midst of the war on Gaza, fears showing excessive generosity towards the evictees from the south and the Upper Galilee, and refrain from setting a policy towards the families who will not want to return to their homes in the kibbutzim.”
Arlazoroff added, “Unlike the evacuation of Sinai or Gush Katif, where the settlers had no place to return to, the displaced individuals today from the Gaza envelope and the border settlements with Lebanon have a place to return, and the state’s supreme interest lies in the return of the residents to their homes in the border areas, as not returning would reflect defeat.”
