Israeli government minister voted on Sunday to end state funding for hotel stays for some residents of southern Israel displaced by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border terrorist invasion from the Gaza Strip.
“According to the updated security assessment, there are no security obstacles preventing residents’ return to the following communities starting July 1, 2025: Be’eri, Holit, Kissufim, Kfar Aza, Kerem Shalom, Nahal Oz, Nirim, Nir Yitzhak, Nir Oz, Netiv HaAsara, Sufa and Ein HaShlosha,” the Cabinet stated following a telephone vote.
It added, “Residents of the mentioned communities currently staying in absorption facilities funded by the state through the Ministry of Tourism or other ministries may remain there until no later than July 31.”
The Tekuma Authority, which was established in the wake of Hamas’s devastating terrorist attack with the aim of rehabilitating the border area, announced on Sunday that it had completed “essential work” ahead of residents’ return to four kibbutzim: Kerem Shalom, Re’im, Nirim and Ein HaShlosha.
The government body is expected to complete reconstruction efforts in Kibbutz Nahal Oz in August, followed by Kibbutz Kissufim three months later. Next year, work in three more kibbutzim—Holit, Kfar Aza and Be’eri—is scheduled to be finished as well, according to the Tekuma Authority.
Residents of the latter five communities will be able to remain in state-funded housing until their communities are fully rebuilt.
As of February, 85% of the approximately 65,000 residents of the “Gaza Envelope”—the area within seven kilometers (4.35 miles) of the Gaza Strip—who were almost all evacuated after the Oct. 7 attacks, were back home, with only around 11,000 still living in state-funded accommodations.
Israel Defense Forces officials told heads of local authorities in the Gaza border area earlier this month that it is safe for all residents to return homes.
“There are no security obstacles to returning to the communities,” OC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor told local leaders on June 10. Also present at the meeting were Defense Minister Israel Katz and Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo.
Milo stressed that, 600-plus days after Oct. 7, the threat facing towns along the Samaria security barrier was now higher than near Gaza.
“If you were to ask me where the threat is much greater today—Bat Hefer is facing a much greater threat than Yakhini,” he emphasized, referring to a village east of Netanya in the Sharon plain and a Gaza border moshav where seven people were killed on Oct. 7, respectively.
