State comptroller warns there’s no evacuation plan for North in case of war
Englman tells Netanyahu to settle an ongoing squabble between Defense Minister Gallant and Interior Minister Arbel over responsibility for evacuees
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman warned on Thursday that Israel was not ready to evacuate civilians in case of a war in the north due to disagreements between Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Englman outlined the dispute in which the two ministries could not agree on which was responsible for civilian evacuations in emergencies.
The Interior Ministry claims, Englman wrote, that it is only responsible for government-initiated evacuations of civilians to schools and that decisions to evacuate citizens to other locations, including hotels, were not within its purview.
Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry maintains that the Interior Ministry is responsible for taking care of civilians and supplying them with solutions in evacuations whether they were independent or organized by the state.
Earlier this month, Gallant sent Arbel a letter warning him that there was a chance the war in Gaza was going to expand to Lebanon, which could require more extensive evacuations up north than were done after October 7.
“There has been opposition from the Interior Ministry to advance a plan for such an evacuation if it were to become necessary as the ministry claims the matter is not under its responsibility unless the evacuation would be to schools,” Englman wrote.
In his response to Gallant, Arbel wrote that his ministry “is not responsible for a proactive evacuation of the population.”
He added that “the suggested plan is not applicable, and therefore, the Interior Ministry is opposed to it.”
Englman told Netanyahu that the exchange between the ministers highlighted the lack of a solution for the issue of civilian evacuations in an emergency.
“This issue was underscored especially during tours I took in the North and the South since the beginning of the war as well as during meetings I held with evacuees and heads of local and regional authorities,” he wrote.
For example, he said, the residents of Kiryat Shmona are currently spread across some 300 locations across the country, making it impossible for the municipality to keep up with all its residents. Many of the local governments to which the residents evacuated have also been unable to properly supply the evacuees with the education, welfare, health, and employment services they need.
“Due to the rising tensions on the northern border and given the severe consequences that may arise from the lack of a proper organization of evacuations, your settlement in the dispute between the defense minister and the interior minister is required to bring about an immediate solution and ensure that the State of Israel has an applicable plan to provide the necessary services to the evacuating population,” Englman ended.
Tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated from southern communities close to the border with Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 massacre in which terrorists infiltrated Israel murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages, sparking a war with Israel.
On October 8, Hezbollah began launching near-daily attacks from Lebanon, which it said was in solidarity with Hamas amid the war. The attacks forced some 60,000 Israelis from northern communities to evacuate too.
The evacuations have been extended several times over the last nine months, and while some families have begun to return to their homes in the South, residents of the North will be unable to do so if the skirmishes on the northern border escalate into a war.
