Tekuma Administration reports spending NIS 6.4b on Gaza border reconstruction this year
Authority waiting for government to release over NIS 2 billion of this sum as local mayors appeal to Finance Ministry and PM’s office, fearing program cuts in 2025 budget
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
The Tekuma Authority, tasked with rehabilitating the Gaza border communities overrun by Hamas terrorists a year ago, will spend NIS 6.4 billion ($1.7 billion) during 2024, equivalent to 90 percent of the budget approved by the government, according to its first six-month report, covering April to September.
The bulk of the money is earmarked for 121 housing and infrastructure projects, which will cost more than NIS 3 billion ($800 million).
The administration is still waiting for the government to pay out over NIS 2 billion ($580 million) for the current year.
Now, local authority heads and residents fear that the Finance Ministry will cut around NIS 1 billion ($265 million) from next year’s budget as the treasury battles to underwrite the ongoing war against the Iran-backed terror groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
On October 7, the mayors of four Gaza border communities — Sderot (Alon Davidi), Hof Ashkelon (Itamar Revivo), Sha’ar Hanegev (Yossi Keren) and Eshkol (Gadi Yarkoni) — alongside the directors of two nonprofits, The Going Home Forum (Forum Habayta) and Gaza Border Future (Atid leOtef), wrote to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Yossi Sheli, who directs the Prime Minister’s Office and serves as the authority’s acting director. In their joint letter, they protested that promised funds had been frozen and that the government had not yet approved a Tekuma Law.
The proposal would anchor the government’s commitments and project timetables into legislation. However, given that the bill, first presented in April, has not advanced, the mayors called on Smotrich and Sheli to include the key obligations in the Economic Arrangements Bill, which will accompany the 2025 budget and has statutory force.
525 buildings need to be demolished
A mapping of the physical damage wrought by the Hamas attack, which left 1,200 people dead on October 7, 2023, revealed that 525 buildings need demolishing (in a process due to end in December), of which 392 are housing units. Another 330 buildings need substantial renovation, while 2,908 require light repairs.
This year, NIS 1.13 billion ($344 million) is being spent on education, health, social welfare, culture, youth, and more. Another NIS 431 million ($115 million) will go to agriculture, NIS 67 million ($17.8 million) to tourism, and NIS 29 million ($7.7 million) to boost the regional economy, business, and employment. A further NIS 856 million ($227 million) is earmarked to improve community security. This is due to be completed by the end of March.
The administration has paid just under half the total funds directly to recipients, mainly for immediate needs, to avoid delays caused by ministry bureaucracy.
NIS 19 billion to be spent over five years
On April 17, the government approved a five-year plan, costing NIS 19 billion ($5 billion), for the city of Sderot and the 46 rural communities that suffered varying levels of devastation from the attack.
The authority spent the next six months focusing on the immediate needs of the communities and designing an administrative system to ensure smooth coordination with many local and central government bodies, community representatives, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and academia.
In a foreword to the report (in Hebrew), acting Tekuma director Sheli wrote, “It was a year that required organization, planning, and the beginning of implementation.” He added that 13 displaced communities had been settled in temporary accommodation in cities or rural areas.
The report said that the 10 communities with the heaviest damage were at an advanced stage of rehabilitation plans. The authority has approved budgets to enable five more communities to plan theirs.
Before October 7, almost 64,000 people lived in the Gaza Envelope — since renamed Tekuma — in 19,300 households, roughly half of them in Sderot. This included 20,751 preschool and school-age children.
23% of residents still displaced
On October 7, some 1,200 people were slaughtered in southern Israel by Hamas-led terrorists, including residents, foreign workers, security forces, and people attending a rave in a forest.
In addition, 251 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, of whom 97 remain hostage, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The report confirmed that 49,449 residents were back in their homes by September, comprising 77% of those living in the region before the terror onslaught and 87% of the total population that received IDF permission to return home.
Eight communities with a combined 3,655 residents have not yet gone home for reasons of security and extensive damage — Holit, Kissufim, Kfar Aza, Kerem Shalom, Nahal Oz, Nir Oz, Nirim, and Ein Hashlosha. Some 1,930 residents from Nir Yitzhak, Netiv Ha’asara, and Sufa cannot return for security reasons, while 1,639 from Be’eri and Re’im aren’t returning because of damage to physical infrastructure.
These 3,655 are among 14,528 residents (23% of the prewar population) who have not yet gone home and are staying in hotels or other forms of accommodation.
Creating an infrastructure for renewal
The report said the authority has met with various government and non-government actors over the last six months to determine how best to allocate the funds and ensure they are spent transparently. Human and computerized systems have been established for monitoring and control.
The authority has chosen to measure progress based on three “super indicators”– the return of residents, demographic growth, and satisfaction with life in the area. On the eve of the ongoing war, the region was growing by around 5% annually, above the national average.
Ten “result indicators” will be used to assess progress in fields ranging from employment rates, income, and health service availability for trauma and resilience.
On October 6 last year, the region boasted 91% employment (compared to an 80% average countrywide). The average gross income (according to data from 2021) was NIS 11,023 (just over $2,900) in Sderot and NIS 13,917 ($3,700) in the rural communities.
The functioning of students in the educational system will be measured on personal, social, and academic levels, and the quality of community life will be assessed with an index created by the Community Centers Association. The authority plans to establish a new index for resilience and coping with trauma with the Health Ministry. Other assessments will focus on subjects including the financial stability of local authorities, satisfaction with public transportation, income from agricultural work, trust in the authorities and the state, and feelings of security regarding life in Israel.
Finally, hundreds of “output indicators” will cover everything from the supply of weapons to community security teams and business investment, investment to participant numbers in programs to encourage a new generation of farmers.
Quantitative targets will be set in the coming months.
The authority, which posts regular updates in English on its website, will publish annual work plans and six-month progress reports. It holds quarterly discussions on projects to identify barriers and delays and propose solutions.