On Monday, the head of a settlement council in southern Israel accused the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to bribe residents with financial grants in exchange for returning to the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip, which are still being subjected to missile attacks from the Strip.
This came in statements by Tamer Idan, head of the Sdot Hanegev Regional Council (which includes 16 settlements in the northwestern Negev desert), to the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
Earlier Monday, the official Broadcasting Authority revealed that the Israeli army is preparing to return the residents of 6 settlements in the Gaza Strip (5 settlements 4 to 7 kilometers from the Strip, and one less than 4 kilometers away) to their homes that they evacuated at the beginning of the war.
She explained that residents who agree to return will receive an adaptation grant (the value of which was not mentioned), while those who refuse to return will be able to continue to stay in hotels in central Israel.
In response, Idan, who is also an activist in the Likud Party headed by Netanyahu, said that the Israeli government is returning residents to last October 6 (the situation before the war) and abandoning their personal security.
He added that the Israeli government is trying to bribe residents to return to their homes, without removing the security threat, or providing a major security response to towns in the region, and without an education system capable of absorbing the returnees.
Earlier Monday, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted senior officials in the Israeli army – which it did not name – that Hamas will have the ability to launch rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip, albeit in a reduced manner, during the next two or three years.
Yesterday evening, Sunday evening, sirens sounded in the city of Tel Aviv and its surrounding areas, and the area around the Gaza Strip, as a result of a salvo of rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a war on Gaza that, as of Monday, has left 21,978 martyrs, 57,697 injured, massive infrastructure destruction, and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.