State Comptroller, Matanyahu Englman, went on a tour in the North today (Sunday, 10.22.23). Amongst others, the State Comptroller met the Mayor of Kiryat Shmona, Avichai Stern, the Head of Upper Galilee Regional Council, Giora Zeltz, and the Head of Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council, Beni Ben Muvhar. The mayor and the heads of the councils brought up significant gaps pertaining to the implementation of the civilians' evacuation plans. The situation is particularly grave in Kiryat Shmona, since amongst the thousands of civilians awaiting evacuation, there are welfare populations and people with disabilities.
The mayor and the heads of the councils brought up gaps pertaining to armouring and rapid-response squads, as well as lack of synchronization between different ministries and excessive bureaucracy, despite the fact that it has been two weeks since the war broke out. Moreover, they brought up the need to grant responsibilities and powers to the authorities, alongside allocating resources that would help them cope with the situation.
The State Comptroller had a tour of the Of HaGalil factory, an essential factory that caters for a major part of chicken consumption in Israel, as well as the Galil Kerur factory (both factories are owned by the Galilee Development Company) which stores fruit and frozen products for main Israeli suppliers. The managers of the factories presented the gaps to the State Comptroller, including the need of arranging the evacuation of essential employees to nearby hotels and making freight trucks available for the factories in order to allow them to continue to function properly.
In a meeting with the Mayor of Kiryat Shmona, Avichai Stern, the State Comptroller said that "In the past two weeks I have been visiting many towns in the North and the South, aiming to personally meet mayors, heads of councils, residents and evacuees from the towns where the pogrom took place on the black Saturday of October 7th, and from other borderline towns in the North and in the South.
Today we have witnessed the evacuation process, the gaps and the multiple difficulties experienced by the various local authorities in general, and by needy populations that have not been evacuated yet in particular.
Unfortunately, the situation on site is problematic and reflects significant gaps. The actions that have been taken by the government in recent days are insufficient. The tours on site and the conversations I and other State Comptroller Office officials have had with the relevant people revealed that there is no operational mechanism that can lead governmental efforts pertaining to the home-front needs, such as population evacuation, welfare needs, mental resilience and educational needs - which require an immediate response.
A governmental - civilian operations room is designated to provide urgent and essential response to all of the civilian needs of hundreds of thousands of residents and evacuees in the South, North and the host towns. Without it, it will be difficult to deal with the reality we are facing, in which the home-front is exposed, even before the ground maneuver and other military actions have started.
This is a wake-up call for the government and its head and to all the ministers, to take actions that would provide operational and comprehensive solutions to all the issues that affect the home-front. At this point in time, the gaps must be bridged and it must be done immediately and effectively."