Kiryat Shmona mayor: ‘Every day we tell more families they don’t have a home to return to’

The mayor of Kiryat Shmona laments that his largely evacuated northern border town has been battered by rockets fired by terrorists from Lebanon, with many homes being destroyed.

“Unfortunately, every day we have to tell more families that they will not have a home to return to, there are houses that need to be demolished and rebuilt,” Avichai Stern tells the Ynet news site.

He asks why the lives of northern residents were apparently of lower value than those who lived in the center of the country, apparently referring to the IDF’s preemptive strike last month as Hezbollah was preparing to launch an attack on the Tel Aviv area.

“We need to get to a point where [terrorists] are afraid to fire at Kiryat Shmona,” he urges.

Hezbollah hasbeen attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis since October 8, a day after its ally, Palestinian terror group Hamas, launched its October 7 massacre, killing 1,200 people across southern Israel and abducting 251 people. Hezbollah says its attacks are to support Gaza amid the war Hamas triggered.

Tens of thousands of residents of northern border communities have been evacuated since the start of the war, displaced from their homes for close to a year. Many accuse the government of not taking enough action against Hezbollah so that they can return home.