State Comptroller says government has failed to properly assist residents of northern communities post Oct 7

A report by Israel's State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman found that the government’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack – and the subsequent war in Gaza, along with its devastating impact on northern communities –was inadequate in meeting those communities’ needs.

The State Comptroller's Office audited the government’s civil and economic response to northern communities during the Iron Sword War, focusing on their severe socioeconomic conditions between May and November 2024.

The report identified a need for a comprehensive government-civilian response and found pervasive delays in the government’s overall handling of northern communities.

The State Comptroller noted that the audit was conducted mainly within the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Finance. Additional checks were carried out within the Ministry of the Interior, the Mateh Asher Regional Council and the Upper Galilee Regional Council. 

Following the outbreak of the Iron Swords War, there was a significant security threat to the communities near the northern border faced a significant security threat from Hezbollah rocket and missile fire from Lebanon, as well as the risk of infiltration by hostile elements into Israeli territory.

Due to these threats, the Israeli government decided to implement a "national action plan for the evacuation of the population in the northern sector (0-5 km from the border) and its absorption” into the central part of the country. 

As a result of that decision, 43 communities in the north, located up to 3.5 kilometers (approximately 1.5 miles) from the border, totaling around 60,000 people, were evacuated. 

While hostilities on the northern border had mostly come to a halt in November 2024 following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, many residents have yet to return to their homes.

Englman said, “The ongoing delay in formulating a government policy to address border communities is a fundamental deficiency in the government’s treatment of the residents, many of whom have experienced considerable suffering.” 

The State Comptroller’s report stated that about 54% of those northern residents who evacuated their homes indicated a high probability that they will not return to their abandoned communities. 

The report found that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former PMO Director-General Yossi Shelly were chiefly to blame for the failure to develop and implement a long-term reconstruction and rehabilitation plan for the northern communities. 

The comptroller also found that Eliezer “Chayni” Marom, the northern project coordinator, failed to develop a sufficient plan before his resignation following a five-month term in the office. 

While the government approved an emergency rehabilitation plan in May 2024, the comptroller’s office said that only parts of the plan were implemented, and it was only partially funded. 

The report found that only 65% of the NIS 940 million ($269 million) that the government had allocated for northern communities in May 2024 had, in fact, been distributed by July of that same year. The government later decided to reduce the budget for aid. 

The comptroller also found that the government continually “passed the buck,” transferring responsibility for the northern communities from one office to another. Originally assigned to the Ministry of Interior, the responsibility was passed to the Finance Ministry, before being transferred again to the PMO. 

Englman’s office said that ultimately, responsibility for “this difficult outcome falls first and foremost at the doorstep of the Prime Minister’s Office.” 

According to the report, Netanyahu’s office failed at “formulating a long-term plan for the rehabilitation of communities in the north and preparing for the return of evacuated residents to their homes.” 

“Obviously, the public has a right to answers to the very tough questions that October 7, the worst disaster in Israel since its creation, raised,” the comptroller said. "The State Comptroller will not rest until these answers are delivered, accounting for the failures on the governmental and military levels.”