Comptroller: Most evacuated residents of the north unlikely to return; untenable government delays in rehabilitating the area

In a report issued today, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman says that 54% of the 60,000 residents evacuated from 43 northern communities said there is a high chance that they won’t return to the community where they lived before the war, according to the Kan news outlet.

“The ongoing delay in formulating a government policy to address the conflict-line communities is a fundamental deficiency in the government’s treatment of the residents, many of whom have experienced considerable suffering,” Engelman writes, placing responsibility for the matter on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Prime Minister’s Office director general Yossi Shelley.

Only 65% of the NIS 940 million ($269 million) allocated to northern communities in May 2024 had been transferred by July of that year. In August, the government decided to reduce the budget by 14% to NIS 804 million ($230 million).

In the report, the auditor says that the responsibility of caring for northern residents was transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Finance Ministry, which in turn transferred it to the Prime Minister’s Office. Tasks to be carried out within one to three months from May 2024 were not completed four months later.

The comptroller recommends that the government expedite a comprehensive and systematic response to the rehabilitation of the northern communities. He says that the finance minister must act decisively to implement the rehabilitation plans.

Engelman notes that compared to the 54% of northern residents who say they will not return to their former communities, only 13% of evacuees from the south stated that there is a high chance that they will not return to the place where they lived before the outbreak of the war.

Residents were evacuated from southern communities after the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. Northern residents were also evacuated when Hezbollah began attacking Israel a day later.