NIS 12 billion over 5 years: Israel’s plan for rebuilding the north comes into focus

After extended delays and numerous complaints from residents of Israel’s northern communities, details are starting to emerge for the government’s plan to rehabilitate and rebuild the north after more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah.

Some NIS 200 million ($55 million) is ready to be released to local authorities in the coming days in order to prepare communities to absorb residents moving back to their homes, Minister Ze’ev Elkin (New Hope) said Thursday. For long-term rebuilding projects, NIS 15 billion ($4.1 billion) is being budgeted to rebuild the north over five years, including NIS 4 billion ($1.1 billion) earmarked for use in 2025, he said.

“When I first entered my new role [as head of the Northern Rehabilitation Directorate], I understood that everyone expected us to launch a five-year plan with a lot of money, but nothing was happening,” Elkin told The Times of Israel. “I concluded that we need to work differently. At the same time as we work on the big plan, we also need to release money immediately when individual decisions are made, so that we aren’t sitting on a pile of money that isn’t helping anyone.”

“We also set a principle that everything that existed prior to October 7 must be restored,” Elkin continued. “That is to say, if a kindergarten that used to have afternoon daycare now doesn’t have enough students to justify it, we will have to finance it anyway. Same with the health system. We are working with the local authorities to make it all work together.”

While the residents of some communities in the north have been given the green light to return to their homes since Israel signed a ceasefire with Hezbollah in late November, very few have come back. As many as 70 percent of homes in communities like Metulla, Kiryat Shmona, and Kibbutz Manara have been destroyed, and extensive construction work is needed.

On Sunday, the military announced that it is “in the midst of an extensive operation to clear and clean northern communities” that have been damaged during the conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The military said in a statement that “the operation involves engineering teams and additional forces deployed in over 40 communities in northern Israel,” and that “the forces are clearing military equipment, cleaning waste, and removing unexploded ordnance” from the communities.

The statement added that the military and the local authorities “have been working for over a year to create the conditions for the safe return of residents to their homes, with an emphasis on managing daily life in a safe environment.”

Too little, too late?

Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, amid fears that Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, together with almost-daily rocket fire since October 8, by the terror group.

Since the ceasefire came into effect at the end of November, the communities have begun rebuilding and repairing damage from the Hezbollah attacks.

Elkin acknowledged that government assistance had been limited thus far. “The government delayed a lot,” he said Friday, in an interview with 103FM radio. “There was an initial plan to assist evacuees, and also a government decision to invest in aid, but in practice, it took time for the government to deliver the budgets.”

Homes that sustained damage from direct attacks are eligible for government compensation for reparations. While the government is not required by law to pay for indirect damages sustained over the past 14 months, Elkin said he will look to find ways to provide compensation for those as well.

“Everything should be at least in the shape it was on October 6,” Elkin said.

Looking towards the future, Elkin said, the government’s rehabilitation plans in the north represent an opportunity to think much bigger and move development forward faster than has been done until now.

“I’m not talking about a long-term project with limited funding, but using this unique situation to invest large sums of money to grow quickly,” including establishing universities in Kiryat Shmona and the Galilee, Elkin said.

Not everyone is optimistic about the government’s ability to implement these plans. There are plenty of contractors who would be happy to take on these projects, but not enough workers to complete the building, said Alon Rahmian, chairman of the Northern Contractors Organization and owner of a construction company operating in the north.

Israel’s construction industry has traditionally relied on Palestinian workers, but that source of labor disappeared virtually overnight after October 7, as Israel enacted an immediate ban on workers from Gaza and restricted access to many from the West Bank. Thousands of foreign workers from Thailand, China, the Philippines and other countries also went home following the attack, and efforts to bring in other workers have largely stalled.

“We are ready to build, and there is a strong desire to rebuild infrastructures and create new projects with a long-term vision,” Rahmian said. “But there are simply not enough workers available.”

Elkin is undeterred by the charge. “When there is money, people work,” his spokesman noted, pointing to the massive amount of funds earmarked for the rebuilding.

Elkin was tasked last month with planning the rebuilding of Israel’s northern and Gaza Envelope regions, which have been devastated by the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and the subsequent war.

Previously, Israeli Navy Vice Admiral (res.) Eliezer Marom had been assigned to oversee the rehabilitation of Israel’s northern communities, but he resigned last week due to Elkin’s increased role.

Marom “is a very qualified person, but he told me at the beginning that he feels the job needs more of an executive and less of a decision-maker at this point,” Elkin told 103FM radio. “I accepted his position and we have coordinated everything together.”

The Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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