Israel has revealed that 427 homes in the settlements adjacent to the border with Lebanon were affected since the start of its fight with Hezbollah and Palestinian factions on October 8th.
According to a report prepared by Salam Khodr, the Israeli Ministry of Defense stated that 80 of these houses were directly hit since the onset of the clashes with Hezbollah and the Palestinian factions.
The ministry clarified that it is assessing the damages that affected the homes along the northern border and is working on coordinating rehabilitation efforts. At the end of last January, the newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” reported that the army reduced the number of soldiers present on the border with Lebanon and decreased its deployed forces.
The newspaper stated that local alert teams will undertake the task of securing the local settlements, responding to threats until the army arrives if necessary. Local rescue team leaders criticized the decision, stating that they were only informed days before its implementation. The newspaper quoted one of these leaders saying, “They promised to protect us after the war, but they left us and the war is still ongoing.”
Evacuation of Settlements
Israel evacuated the mentioned settlements’ residents immediately after the start of operations following an urgent telephone vote. The evacuation was supervised by the Minister of Defense, Yitzhak Mordechai, according to Israeli newspapers.
With increasing tension and road closures connecting the settlements, Israel expanded the evacuation area from two square kilometers to 5 kilometers. Israel anticipated ground infiltrations by Hezbollah or the factions from the 1400-kilometer border.
Hezbollah announced that it targeted about 700 strikes on Israeli military sites, areas, and points, in addition to 17 settlements on the border during the first three months of the war. These attacks led to the displacement of approximately 50,000 settlers, who were accommodated in hotels inside Israel and have not returned to their homes until now.
