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Resuscitating Israel’s Destitute North Should Begin Now
People rush to a soccer field hit by a Hezbollah rocket in the majority-Druze northern Israeli town Majdal Shams Photo: Via 924, from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law
The deadly conflict between Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel has entered a new phase, as the threat of all-out war between the Jewish State and the Lebanese terror group looms.
Amid escalating tensions, Israel and its supporters can take immediate steps to equip Israel’s most vulnerable northern border communities with sorely needed defenses, paving the way for their eventual renewal.
Kiryat Shmona — Israel’s largest evacuated northern town and the economic hub of the northern Galilee — should be prioritized.
The Israeli government updated its longstanding war goals last week, vowing to return tens of thousands of displaced Israelis from northern communities to their homes. The announcement was followed by an unprecedented attack on the Hezbollah terror network, whereby thousands of personal communication devices belonging to Hezbollah members — beepers and walkie-talkies — appeared to be remotely detonated in what may be the biggest and most wide-spread simultaneous counter-terrorism precision strike in history.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, forcing Jerusalem to evacuate over 40 communities along its northern border, while the Jewish State was still counting its dead and struggling to establish the number of missing persons from Hamas’ invasion and massacre in Israel’s south on October 7.
Hezbollah has been openly planning a similar attack and invasions of Israel for years. Mass evacuations of Israel’s northern border communities were the only way to ensure that other massacres and hostage scenarios would not play out along its border with Lebanon.
Given the lessons learned from October 7, and the IDF’s state of high readiness in the north, it is unlikely that Hezbollah could carry out an October 7-like invasion today. But the majority of Israel’s over 1.5 million residents remain vulnerable to Hezbollah rockets; terrorists in Lebanon have fired over 7,500 rockets at Israel since the war began.
Over the past decade, Tehran has spent billions of dollars building Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal. Today, the terror group is estimated to have more than 150,000 rockets, the vast majority of which are short-range rockets that would exclusively target Israeli border communities. Yet the most vulnerable communities in the north — including Kiryat Shmona — lack the means to withstand this threat.
Kiryat Shmona is situated in a lush green valley, surrounded by Lebanese territory on three sides. In 2021, the city celebrated a newly-launched innovation center — a venture capital funded food-tech research and development hub, which promised tens of thousands of jobs in the coming years. Before the war, there were 90 start-ups in Kiryat Shmona. Today, the majority of those companies have moved their operations south, away from the rocket fire — a devastating blow to the regional economy.
According to Ariel Frisch, Kiryat Shmona’s deputy director of security, the town’s population was 25,000 before the war, but only had sufficient bomb shelters for 50% of the residents. A school principal in normal times, Fricsh said that his town had absorbed over 750 direct hits on infrastructure since the war began, damaging homes, schools, and kindergartens.
A small number of Israelis have returned to their border communities, willing to face the rocket fire in order to regain some sense of normalcy. However, many others have no plans to return to the north. A poll conducted by the Kiryat Shmona municipality indicated that 14% percent of residents would not return to the town. A further 34% said that their decision to return would depend on the security outlook. The bottom line: providing security to Kiryat Shmona is critical to the town’s survival and to the future of the northern Galilee.
Israel must strengthen the ability of Kiryat Shmona to withstand rocket attacks, providing a safer alternative for the people who are ready to return home. The growing community of Sderot, near the Gaza border, is evidence that — if adequate protections are in place — many Israelis are willing to live under the threat of rockets (although it remains to be seen if this trend will continue in the long-term after October 7). But Jerusalem can take key steps now to help make that happen by investing in a more formidable security infrastructure.
The best short-term solution is to install what Israelis call miguniot — Hebrew for standalone concrete boxes with metal doors that residents can truck into Kiryat Shmona and place close to a home, business, or school, providing limited but essential protection from projectiles.
Domestically manufactured miguniot that are built in various sizes for different capacities, are advertised for sale on the Internet for anywhere between $7,000 and $40,000 and can be delivered within three weeks.
The utility of miguniot is limited though: Israelis in border communities only have 15 seconds to reach them in the face of incoming fire. Accordingly, Israelis must position miguniot strategically to be effective.
The better solution for hardening communities in the mid to long-term is building additions of reinforced concrete safe rooms attached directly to homes, schools, clinics, and other public spaces that residents can reach even faster. These safe rooms can be air-conditioned and wired to the home’s electricity, making them suitable for sheltering in place for longer periods of time.
Safe rooms are a more expensive, but more effective solution, and costs can range between $27,000 and $60,000 per unit. They also take longer to build, involve an architect and permitting, and require a team that is willing to work onsite to construct the safe rooms.
Israeli leaders should embark on a campaign to raise money for both types of these shelters, or find another way to allocate the funds immediately. Even if Hezbollah is trounced in a future war, the rocket threat isn’t going anywhere. Jerusalem should galvanize Diaspora Jewry and other supporters of Israel to help.
The work of hardening Kiryat Shmona must begin now. Lessons learned from Sderot and other communities that have thrived under rocket fire for over a decade in Israel can be applied. The longer Kiryat Shmona and other towns remain empty, the harder it will be to bring life back to the entire region.
Enia Krivine is the senior director of the Israel Program and the FDD National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow her on X at @EKrivine.
The post Resuscitating Israel’s Destitute North Should Begin Now first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.