Plans underway to merge staff overseeing recovery of towns bordering Gaza, Lebanon

Plans are underway to absorb the government committee charged with rehabilitating Israeli communities along the Lebanon border into the body overseeing the recovery Gaza border communities, the minister overseeing both efforts told reporters on Monday.

Ze’ev Elkin said the merger is aimed at providing more funds and staff to both initiatives and that he hoped it would be approved in the coming weeks.

The move would give a particular boost to the northern border recovery effort, given that the government body responsible, Tnufa LeTsafon (Northern Momentum, in Hebrew), only has 10 staff members, compared to roughly 70 people who work at the Tekuma Directorate, which focuses on rehabilitating Israel’s south.

The northern border, which includes the Golan Heights, and covers a greater area than that between Israel and Gaza, came under sustained attack by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror organization between October 2023 and a ceasefire deal in November 2024.

The majority of residents evacuated from both border areas have returned home.

Hezbollah’s attacks started soon after Hamas terrorists had invaded southern Israel, killing 1,200 mainly civilians and abducting 251 to the Gaza Strip.

Elkin said that the Finance Ministry was not prepared to fund a significantly enlarged Tnufa LeTsafon.

“So we negotiated the absorption of Tnufa LeTsafon into Tekuma (Hebrew for revival) and added several dozen more positions,” he went on.

In the interim, Elkin said he had asked for a three-month extension to the tenure of the current part-time director of Tnufa LeTsafon.