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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 649

Kiryat Shmona

Marcel Vaknin collects eggs in her chicken coop in Dovev, northern Israel, on July 8, 2025. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
Reporter's notebook
With end to housing subsidies, evacuated northern residents return home, still unsettled
By Diana Bletter
Now focused on rehabilitation, residents in Dovev and Kiryat Shmona scramble to fund projects, reduce distress among elderly and youth — and try to stop the country from ‘shrinking’
Marcel Vaknin collects eggs in her chicken coop in Dovev, northern Israel, on July 8, 2025. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
July 10, 2025, 7:59 am
With end to housing subsidies, evacuated northern residents return home, still unsettled
Now focused on rehabilitation, residents in Dovev and Kiryat Shmona scramble to fund projects, reduce distress among elderly and youth — and try to stop the country from ‘shrinking’
By Diana Bletter
Spanish UN peacekeepers patrol in the disputed Shebaa Farms area between Lebanon and Israel, overlooking the divided border village of Ghajar, February 24, 2015. (AP /Hussein Malla)
April 4, 2025, 9:29 am
While Israel aims for land border deal with Lebanon, history weighs heavy
Shaped by colonial ambition, hardened by war and haunted by Hezbollah, Israel’s confounding northern frontier hangs between relentless violence and tightrope diplomacy
By Nava Freiberg
Mayor Avichai Stern visits kids at a school in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, as schools reopened for students evacuated durting the war with Hezbollah, March 9, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
March 9, 2025, 5:34 pm
Northern mayor’s aide arrested for scuffling with education minister’s guards
Adviser to Kiryat Shmona’s Avichai Stern says he wanted to speak to Yoav Kisch about safety risks at schools that require repairs
By Charlie Summers and Diana Bletter
Kiryat Shmona mayoral candidate Eli Zafrani (left) speaks with two residents of the city outside his campaign HQ on election day, February 18, 2025 (Shalom Yerushalmi/Times of Israel)
February 19, 2025, 4:25 pm
In Kiryat Shmona, a city with no residents holds elections with no voters
Mayoral race, delayed for 15 months due to the war, takes place with almost 80% of northern border city’s uprooted residents scattered across Israel. Many of them won’t return
By Shalom Yerushalmi
A man unloads construction materials in front of a damaged building in Metula, November 27, 2024. (David Cohen FLASH90)
December 22, 2024, 10:38 pm
NIS 12 billion over 5 years: Israel’s plan for rebuilding the north comes into focus
While Minister Ze’ev Elkin claims, ‘We’ll build even bigger in the future,’ head of the Northern Contractors Organization counters: ‘There are simply not enough workers available’
By Zev Stub
A moving truck is one of the few vehicles in this neighborhood in Kiryat Shmona. (Uriel Heilman/ JTA)
December 19, 2024, 9:37 am
Despite Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal, northern residents fear returning home
While the conflict is officially over for now, many Israelis near the border are wary of October 7-like attacks and future wars with the Lebanese terrorist organization
By Uriel Heilman
Tsahal, Salim and Max, three friends in Katzrin, on December 8, 2024. (Gavriel Fiske/Times of Israel)
December 9, 2024, 2:04 am
As Syrian regime falls next door, Golan town of Katzrin keeps calm and carries on
Residents of ‘The Capital of the Golan’ went about their business on Sunday, but some expressed uncertainty about the historical changes taking place a short car ride away
By Gavriel Fiske
Former Kiryat Shmona mayor Prosper Azran stands in front of his mother's house, which had previously been destroyed by a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile in Kiryat Shmona, on December 1, 2024. (Diana Bletter/Times of Israel)
December 2, 2024, 4:34 pm
Residents returning to Israel’s decimated far north worry their neighbors won’t come home
Some members of Kibbutz Manara return to discover widespread damage; in Kiryat Shmona, a former mayor says there should never have been an evacuation at all despite the dangers
By Diana Bletter
UTJ's Yitzhak Goldknopf, center, pictured with a map of prospective settlements in Gaza during a tour of the Gaza border area, November 28, 2024. Daniella Weiss is seen on the right. (Courtesy Yitzhak Goldknopf)
December 2, 2024, 1:43 pm
Daily Briefing Dec. 2: Day 423 – Haredi housing minister stirs pot with Gaza border visit
Political correspondent Tal Schneider discusses hostage talks and Goldknopf’s visit to the Gaza border; writer Diana Bletter reports on devastated northern towns
By Jessica Steinberg, Tal Schneider and Diana Bletter
View of a house hit from missiles fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Metula, on the Israeli border with Lebanon, November 20, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
November 25, 2024, 11:15 pm
Security cabinet member signals Lebanon deal uncertain, amid pressure to oppose it
As northern mayors cast impending 60-day truce with Hezbollah as ‘surrender deal,’ Likud minister Dichter vows to oppose agreement if it is ‘copy paste’ of UN resolution from 2006
By ToI Staff
Scene where a Hezbollah rocket hit the northern town of Nahariya, injuring a man, November 25, 2024. (Magen David Adom)
November 25, 2024, 4:26 pm
Far right warns against emerging Lebanon ceasefire as Hezbollah barrages continue
Man lightly injured by rocket in Nahariya; IDF strikes across Lebanon hit 25 sites belonging to Hezbollah’s executive council
By Emanuel Fabian, ToI Staff and Agencies
Dr. Raanan Rafaeli holds a feline patient during the war in Kiryat Shmona. (Courtesy)
October 13, 2024, 1:10 am
Hezbollah fire doesn’t deter dedicated vets treating animals in war-torn Kiryat Shmona
Two veterinarians in the officially evacuated city keep their clinics open, at times forced to amputate the legs of dogs caught up in the terror group’s rocket attacks
By Diana Bletter
Security and rescue forces at the site where a drone fired from Lebanon caused damage to a building in Herzliya, October 11, 2024. (Tal Gal/Flash90)
October 12, 2024, 3:00 pm
Hezbollah fires rockets, drones throughout Yom Kippur; Herzliya retirement home hit by UAV
Drone strikes retirement home in coastal town, no injuries; IDF orders more south Lebanon villages evacuated, faces rising world criticism for hitting UN position amid fighting
By ToI Staff and Agencies
Smoke rises from a fire that broke out as a result of rockets fired from Lebanon near Kibbutz Shamir, in the Upper Galilee, October 11, 2024 (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
October 11, 2024, 3:39 pm
Foreign worker killed by unexploded ordnance in Galilee amid ongoing rocket attacks
Thai man dies and another injured in blast, apparently caused by a munition previously fired by Hezbollah; IDF intercepts several drones from Lebanon
By ToI Staff and Agencies
A residential building whose top two floors were hit by an Israeli strike in the Ghobeiri area of Beirut's southern suburbs on September 24, 2024. (Anwar AMRO / AFP)
September 24, 2024, 4:49 pm
IDF strike in Beirut kills Hezbollah missile chief, as rockets pummel Israel
Lebanese authorities say 6 killed and 15 wounded in strike, some 560 killed since conflict spiked; IDF reservist moderately hurt by shrapnel
By Emanuel Fabian, ToI Staff and Agencies
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