Israel’s government is expected to extend the evacuation for residents along the northern border to July 7, Ynet reported on Sunday. There are currently 60,000 displaced residents of the northern border towns.
According to the report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office is expecting to extend it even further to August, amid rumored plans of war with Hezbollah.
The pending July decision was made in light of diplomatic efforts to prevent a full-scale war with the Lebanese-based terrorist group in the North and is in line with local government requests after the military suggested only extending two months at a time.
This proposal takes the end of the school year into consideration, as Education Minister Yoav Kisch said he was determined to enable evacuated kids to continue learning at the schools they have been attending since the start of the war in October.
Diplomatic efforts being made to stop escalation along northern border
A senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office said that if the security along the Lebanon border permits, the evacuated residents could possibly return home sooner, and that there would certainly be more returning in the upcoming months, according to the Ynet report. The government will continue paying for the cost of hotels or rent for the evacuees’ temporary accommodations while they are displaced.
While there are discussions of a military offensive against Hezbollah, it cannot be launched because of opposition from the United States and France, who seek to reach a diplomatic agreement instead. The proposal sent to Beirut calls for fighters, including Hezbollah’s elite unit, to withdraw 10 km. from the border.
Hezbollah continues to reject formally negotiating a de-escalation until the war in Gaza ends.
As of February, there are still upwards of 100,000 internally displaced residents of the northern and southern towns of Israel. Many of the displaced residents of the South have already begun returning to their homes, but not all of them.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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