Israel lays out NIS 3.4 billion plan to get northerners back home in March

The Finance Ministry on Sunday presented a NIS 3.4 billion ($934 million) compensation plan to help bring thousands of evacuated residents of Israel’s battered northern communities back home in early March, after more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah.

“The key to returning home is security and we are not going to compromise on this matter,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, at a press conference in Jerusalem. “Residents of the north are returning to a different security reality, and we will make sure that quiet is maintained for years.”

The announcement of the return-to-home plan comes after extended delays and numerous complaints from residents of Israel’s northern communities, who have been internally displaced for more than a year.

According to the compensation plan, northern residents who return to their homes on March 7 will receive grants for a maximum NIS 25,360 per adult and NIS 12,680 per child for up to seven kids. A family with two parents and four children will receive a total grant of NIS 101,440.

These grants consist of two tracks: a grant to assist with the return home and a grant to compensate returnees for the indirect damage caused to their homes, after they were abandoned for more than a year. Homes that sustained damage from direct attacks such as rockets are eligible for government compensation for reparations by the property tax authority.

The grant to assist with the return home amounts to NIS 15,360 per adult and NIS 7,680 per child. A household with four children will receive NIS 61,440. In addition, a grant of 10,000 per adult and 5,000 per child will be allocated as compensation for indirect damage caused to property due to abandonment, including broken electrical appliances, such as refrigerators or other infrastructure. The grants will be received via payment by the National Insurance Institute.

Families with children will be given the option to remain in their current locations and state-funded accommodation to be able to finish the school year and move back home to the north in June. However, the size of their back-to-home grant will be reduced over time, while the eligibility to their home abandonment grant will not be affected.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference in Jerusalem on January 5, 2025. (Yossi Zamir/ GPO)

Dozens of communities in the north of the country were evacuated after the October 7 massacre in 2023, as the Hezbollah terror group began launching near-daily attacks from across the Lebanon border. Some 60,000 northerners remained displaced following months of Hezbollah’s rocket fire.

Even after a tenuous Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, which took effect in late November and is set to expire at the end of the month, many residents of the battered border kibbutz communities who are staying in state-funded accommodation, including hotels, have been worried about their safety and wary that the peace will hold.

Also speaking at the press conference, MK Ze’ev Elkin, head of the Northern Rehabilitation Directorate, said that out of the NIS 3.4 billion budget, funds will also be allocated to local authorities in the north to prepare for the return of residents in March. The funds will partly be allocated to ensure that educational institutions such as schools and daycare centers will be reopened and will operate, even though some residents may decide to defer their return home until June.

“The message for me is not just the grants, but that there is an action plan to return our residents home,” said Moshe Davidovich, the head of Western Galilee’s Mateh Asher Regional Council “The return of residents to a normal life, rehabilitation, and growth of the Galilee and border communities are of utmost importance to us.”

“The Israeli government should put this before its eyes as a national mission with a focus on education, welfare, business, agriculture, and tourism to return the north to growth,” Davidovich demanded.