IDF delays estimate for northern residents to return home from February to March — report

The IDF estimates that northern residents who have been evacuated since Hezbollah began cross-border attacks on October 8, 2023, will be able to return to their homes in three months, Channel 12 reports, weeks into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanon-based terror group.

The report notes that the updated timeframe isn’t far from the original plan, which was to allow residents of northern border communities to go home on February 1, 2025.

Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.

Since the ceasefire came into effect at the end of November, the communities have begun rebuilding and repairing damage from the Hezbollah attacks.

Earlier today, IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin said that the military was continuing to enforce the truce.

“We are determined to take our fate into our own hands and enforce the [ceasefire] agreement and remove the threat to the border — just like we did today, yesterday, and every day since the agreement was signed,” he said, according to a statement.