It has been almost four months since Hamas terrorists stormed Israel’s southern border and went on a murderous rampage in which they killed some 1,200 people, injured thousands of others, and kidnapped over 240 people back to the Gaza Strip.
The scenes of burning houses destroyed neighborhoods, and bodies scattered on the ground are etched into the memories of Israelis, especially those from the south, whose communities were the hardest hit.
The terrorist attack was accompanied by thousands of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza, and thousands fired in the weeks since. People fled, and the government evacuated tens of thousands of people from the south to towns out of range of the rockets. Thousands were also evacuated from northern border communities as a result of rockets being fired by Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.
Israeli media reported Sunday that the Finance Ministry was to meet with the municipal leaders of southern communities and present them with a government plan to resettle the area. Fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, the closest point to the first communities meant to return has shifted into a lower gear in recent weeks. Some Israeli forces have withdrawn from the area, and the Israeli military claims that it has significantly harmed Hamas’s infrastructure there.
Since the beginning of the war, the state has funded hotels and other housing options for residents from the evacuated areas. The massive evacuation is costing the state millions of dollars.
According to the reports, residents who live between 4 and 7 kilometers (between 2.4 and 4.3 miles) from the Gaza border will be the first to return to their homes, on March 1.
In July, residents who live right on the border will be expected to return. Funding for alternative housing or hotels will then stop. The residents will be compensated by the government for the first few months of their resettlement.
The Finance Ministry declined to comment on a request from The Media Line on the details of the plan.
“The issue is being formulated between the relevant ministries,” the ministry wrote in a statement received by The Media Line on Sunday.
According to Dr. Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, the significant reduction in the presence of Israeli forces will lead to the inevitable result of Hamas resuming its presence in those areas.
“If the army isn’t there, and there is no one else there, Hamas will resume its control,” Milstein told The Media Line. “This is happening very gradually and beneath the surface, but it is very dramatic and has strategic implications.”
At the onset of the Israeli operation, the government set out its goals and informed the public, promising to topple Hamas and rid it of its military capabilities, as well as to secure the return of all the hostages.
“If Hamas is resuming its hold, it means Israel is not close to toppling it,” Milstein said. “But it also means it is too soon to talk about the day after the war or a new order in Gaza because it is clear Hamas is still in power.”
After years of absorbing "trickles" of rocket fire from Gaza, having seen numerous rounds of violence, and watching Hamas gain strength over the border, the residents of Israel’s south are not naïve. They see that, on the one hand, Israel has been scaling down its military presence in many parts of the Gaza Strip, and on the other, the government is pushing for plans to resettle the areas most affected by Hamas’s attack. The mixed messages do not instill confidence in some of the residents.
Returning home 'on our terms'
“I don’t understand how the State of Israel thinks it will give a little money and send people back to the same reality that existed on October 6. They can try to sell us different stories, but rockets are still being fired, and the sounds of war are all around,” Moran Hagbi, a mother of two young boys from Yakhini, a small village in southern Israel, told The Media Line.
“We really want to go home, but on our terms, when we decide to do so at a time that will be the most favorable for our children. They [the government] are narrowing our options; by stopping the funding for our hotel stay, they are essentially forcing us to go back home. They are paying us to feel safe,” she said.
Although the number of rockets being fired by Hamas has dwindled as Israel’s offensive has progressed, it is not necessarily the rockets that residents of southern Israel fear the most.
“There are still sirens, there are still rockets, and we are also hearing reports that Hamas and Gaza residents are beginning to return to the areas that the army has left,” Hagbi said. “Who would agree to bring their children back to an area that is so close to them? I don’t think so.”
Itamar Zolberg, from the town of Sderot, where Hamas gunmen carried out a massacre, has been staying with his wife and children in a Jerusalem hotel since the beginning of the war. He told The Media Line that while he understood that the war was still going on very close to his town, living in a hotel room for months was a challenge.
“I prefer going back than living this displaced life,” he said. “There are a lot of [military] forces in the area, so chances of something like that happening again are slim. We are used to the rockets; we know what to do.”
The issues are troubling for local council heads, who have been caught between the government and their residents. After residents spent hours hiding in their bomb shelters waiting for the army to rescue them from the Hamas terrorists, their trust in the army was broken.
“There needs to be an understanding that the best timing for returning home is when the residents get to decide on their own,” Adi Meiri, the spokeswoman for the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, which oversees 13 villages in southern Israel, told The Media Line.
“Since we have no proof that security has been restored, we need to at least feel safe. To do this, there needs to be a dialogue and rebuilding of trust. This won't work if we will be forced to return home at a certain date the government decided unilaterally,” she said.
Meiri said that each community and individual should be given the choice of when to return.
“This will be a much more successful return,” she said. “When we regain control of our lives by getting to decide this, trust will be rebuilt, and people will return to their homes much faster.”
While most of the area has been declared a closed military zone since the beginning of the war, in recent weeks, a trickle of residents have returned to their homes.
The fears of many of the residents are also compounded by the fact that many of the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza are members of the same southern Israeli communities expected to return home.
“Nothing will ever be the same as before, nothing will be whole,” said Meiri. “We want to start a process of healing, but this will not happen until the war is over and the hostages are returned home.”