Environment Ministry allocates NIS 4 million for Gaza border upcycling project

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

A picture shows the inside of a destroyed house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the border with the Gaza Strip on September 12, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
A picture shows the inside of a destroyed house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the border with the Gaza Strip on September 12, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

The Environmental Protection Ministry announces that it will invest NIS 4 million ($1 million) in the creation of two Gaza border centers in Israel which will employ locals to renovate old furniture, including objects damaged during Hamas’s terror rampage on October 7 last year.

The initiative, in partnership with the Tekuma Administration, which the government set up to rehabilitate the region, aims to combine sustainability and upcycling (creating attractive and usable objects out of old ones rather than buying new ones) with providing jobs and helping communal and mental rehabilitation.

“The renewal centers are not only a green and innovative solution for reuse and a circular economy, they are also a way to restore and create community social resilience,” said Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman.

The centers will operate for five years.

On Tuesday, Silman and ministry staff will meet with Gaza border local authority representatives to explain the project and the criteria for funding.

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