In the dozens of Israeli communities located between 5 and 9 kilometers from the border with Lebanon, around 100,000 residents are living in homes without protection from airstrikes. After months of intense rocket fire from the north and despite a seven-year regional defense plan, there is no dedicated budget to advance fortification in this area. It remains unclear when, if ever, the issue will be brought to the government’s table.
In recent weeks, the Ministry of Defense and the military have been working to fortify all homes and public buildings along the Lebanese border. In the coming weeks, the state will allow residents living between 1 and 5 kilometers from the border to apply for a government grant to build a reinforced security room. The entire plan, with an estimated budget of 1.4 billion shekels ($380 million), is part of the Northern Shield framework, which was approved back in 2018 but suffered from chronic underfunding—rectified only as a result of the war.
Although the state defines the northern conflict line as extending up to 9 km from the border, there is currently no plan to continue advancing fortification efforts beyond the 5 kilometer mark.
“As far as the Finance Ministry officials are concerned, the Northern Shield decision is over,” a source familiar with the plan told Davar. “If you ask them, they won’t even be able to say whether there’s an intention to allocate funding or when, if at all, it will happen.”
The source said that the Home Front Command insists that it is committed to fortifying the entire conflict line up to 9 kilometers—even though the Northern Shield plan originally referred to establishing a defense system up to 45 km.
According to the State Comptroller, prior to the October 7 attacks, only 900 million shekels ($245 million) had been allocated to the fortification plan out of the 5 billion ($1.4 billion) originally designated for it, and less than half a billion shekels ($140 million)—just 10% of the budget—had actually been used. The funds now directed toward fortification were drawn from the general government plan for rehabilitating the north and were incorporated into the Northern Shield fortification plan.
Despite its perception as a binding fortification policy, the Northern Shield plan was originally designed as a general framework—a sort of umbrella program for advancing fortification initiatives. But these initiatives remain dependent on government decisions, which are not expected to be made anytime soon.
So why draw the line for state funding of reinforcement efforts at 5 kilometers? Representatives from kibbutzim in the Galilee panhandle have started referring to it as the “discrimination line,” and they inquired with the state as to why the line was chosen.
“No matter how much we tried to investigate, we couldn’t find any logical reason for this number, other than the fact that it was easier to market—because it aligns with the evacuation zone,” the source said. He added that the Finance Ministry sought to advance a fortification plan with a predetermined budget rather than one based on actual needs, and the division of distances was made accordingly.
Just as easily, the Finance Ministry could have decided to fully fund fortifications only for communities up to 2 kilometers from the border while leaving the rest with an even smaller grant. All parties understand that from a purely security perspective, there is no real difference between these communities. However, the question of why the state refuses to invest the full 5 billion shekels ($1.4 billion) in advancing fortifications immediately has never been asked.
In Kibbutz Kfar Blum, located just 6 kilometers from the border, about 70% of homes need reinforced security rooms and plans are in place to build them. “The only thing stopping them is funding," kibbutz community manager Eli Rachevsky told Davar.
Davar’s investigation found similar rates of reinforcement needed in other kibbutzim in the Galilee panhandle and in the western Galilee moshavim.
Only about a third of the public buildings and private homes in these communities are fortified. The situation is similar in the city of Nahariya, less than 10 kilometers from the border with Lebanon, where reinforcement may not be funded in the fortification plan. The city is home to 150,000 residents.
Pnina Bornstein, community manager for Kibbutz Kfar Szold, located just 5 kilometers from Lebanon, said that the state has suggested that it will fund only 10% of the costs of building reinforced security rooms. Just one kilometer north, communities are receiving about 70% of the cost.
All the numbers thrown around are mere estimates, which only amplify the sense of uncertainty and insult.
“We’ve been told for a year and a half that we’re not really a front line, and there’s no real emergency here,” Bornstein said.
For more than a year, the state refused to fund the evacuation of the community. “There’s a calculated risk that I can accept by living here—but where is the responsibility of the state?” Bornstein asked.
Three kilometers east of Kibbutz Kfar Szold lies Kibbutz Amir, another community where more than two-thirds of the buildings are not fortified.
Lior Shachar, manager of the Kibbutz Amir community, said that the state cut red tape involved in building bomb shelters, shortening the planning process from months to weeks. “But because they firmly refuse to say whether there is or isn’t a subsidy, no one is taking advantage of the exemption,” he said.
The Ministry of Defense did not respond to Davar’s question about whether a fortification needs assessment had been conducted in the area, but the official position of the Home Front Command, as expressed in Knesset committees, is that the state has a responsibility for fortifying the area, and it can be assumed that such a survey was conducted and the data is known.
Shachar said that providing grants for individuals to build shelters was preferable to centralized planning and execution by the state. For now, he hopes to allow residents to build with the assurance of receiving a grant in the future.
“We are willing to compromise,” he said. “There’s no money right now? Can’t make a decision? Fine. Decide on a date from which people can start building—and the subsidy will come retroactively. Just get us out of this deadlock.”
This article was translated from Hebrew by Nancye Kochen.
