Northern mayors assail ceasefire, say residents ‘feel betrayed once again’

Municipal leaders in northern Israel are expressing outrage over the announcement of a ceasefire with Lebanon.

David Azoulay, head of the Metula council and a member of the Yisrael Beytenu party, says residents of the north “feel betrayed once again” by the deal.

“The fact that it is the president of the United States who is the one announcing a ceasefire only highlights how disconnected the prime minister of Israel is from the people, and from the reality of the residents of the north,” says Azoulay. In a direct appeal to Netanyahu, he says: “Your basic duty as prime minister of Israel is to provide security to the citizens of the state. In practice, you fail at this time after time.”

Moshe Davidovitz, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council and chairman of the forum of residents on the northern frontline, criticizes the agreement, saying: “Agreements are signed by tie-wearers in Washington, but the price is paid here in blood, in destroyed homes, and in shattered communities.

“The residents of the north are not extras in an international PR show,” he says. “Until we see Hezbollah stripped of its capabilities and our communities truly protected, any celebration of victory is nothing more than an attempt to pull the wool over the public’s eyes.”

Asaf Langleben, head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, describes the ceasefire as “a pause” that will inevitably lead to another round of fighting. He says the north “deserves a decisive outcome that will create real security, not a temporary illusion whose end is disaster.”

Benny Ben-Muvhar, head of the Mevo’ot HaHermon Regional Council, tells Channel 12 that he cannot assure residents who evacuated southward that it is safe to return home, warning that “there is no security here.”

He says residents who evacuated south “are scared to come home,” adding, “We’ve been underground [in shelters] for two months so the IDF could do what it had to do… enough of these games.”

Ben-Muvhar also rejects the notion that a continued IDF deployment in Lebanon would ensure calm, saying it is “absolutely not” sufficient, and urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene northern leaders for a closed forum on the matter.