In Sderot, Netanyahu promises $440m to city after criticism of rocket response

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet held a “special meeting” in the southern city of Sderot on Thursday to promise investments for the community and express support for its residents, who are often targeted by terrorist rockets from the Gaza Strip.

Local leaders had demanded government action earlier this month after terrorists fired dozens of projectiles at Sderot and other nearby communities.

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi and other local officials attended the Thursday meeting. Netanyahu highlighted his government’s efforts to ensure the security of the city, saying, “We’re taking action all the time,” and promised to take further steps to protect southern communities.

He also discussed major operations his previous governments carried out against the Hamas terrorist group and his past support for municipal projects in the region.

To further those efforts, Netanyahu promised to invest NIS 1.6 billion ($440 million) into the city during the meeting.

The new initiative will include developing public areas, boosting education, strengthening the local economy as well as increasing its preparedness for emergencies.

Around half of the allotment — NIS 830 million ($227 million) — will go to infrastructure projects and upgrading public spaces. Another NIS 220 million ($60 million) will be used to boost the local economy.

Such moves are “good for the citizens [of Sderot] and good for all of the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.

“All parts of our society live here. Religious, secular, traditional, immigrants, the elderly, eastern and western — everyone,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue to develop these communities.”

During the Thursday meeting, Sderot mayor Davidi demanded the government put a halt to attacks from Gaza, Kan news reported.

“We want quiet,” Davidi told Netanyahu.

Sderot has long been a stronghold of Netanyahu’s Likud party.

Support for Netanyahu’s coalition has been dropping, according to polls, as the government pushes a dramatic overhaul of the judiciary and other contentious policies.

Netanyahu’s visit to the city came after a flare-up of violence earlier this month, the latest of regular outbreaks between Israel and Palestinian terror groups, many of which center around Gaza.

Terrorists in Gaza fired dozens of projectiles at communities in southern Israel in the latest round of fighting, while other rockets were launched at Israel from Syria and Lebanon.

That most recent round of violence began following clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the flashpoint Temple Mount site in Jerusalem’s Old City.

That led to the rocket fire from Gaza and, in a significant escalation, an unusual barrage of nearly three dozen rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel. The fighting came during a delicate time — when Jews were celebrating the Passover holiday and Muslims were marking the holy month of Ramadan.

Similar tensions spilled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers in 2021.

Local politicians in areas bordering Gaza had called for more forceful action against the rocket fire, which damaged some homes in the strip. Israel launched airstrikes against targets in Gaza in response.

“We must put it on the table — there are no dead terrorists in Gaza,” Davidi said then.

“This means that this policy of granting immunity to terrorists who are making our lives miserable is continuing. To change this equation, we must do other things. It’s time for the government and the prime minister to adopt a policy of eliminating them,” he demanded, noting the ongoing wide-scale anti-terror campaign in the West Bank.

Several other mayors of local and regional councils in the south were quoted by Hebrew media as saying that only targeted assassinations of Gazan terror operatives would “restore deterrence.”