The north of Israel is in a complete mess. The regions near the Lebanese border have been taking a battering since 7 October 2023 when Israel launched its deadly war and slaughter on Gaza.
Head of the Higher Galilee Council Giora Zaltz stated, Saturday, said Hezbollah’s military operations in the north of Israel are becoming more deadly and powerful and the level of security in these northern regions has long deteriorated.
These northern regions have become a powderkeg for Hezbollah drone and missile attacks that turned the areas into an unlivable nightmare according to Israelis themselves with raging fires and the displacement of Israelis.
Zaltz is greatly dismayed. He says the government of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not at all handling the dive-noze security situation and leaving the northern areas to the deadly whims of Hezbollah.
Recently, he mocked the government’s handling of the security situation in the north in an interview on the official Israeli channel, Kan, saying the Netanyahu government discovered in recent weeks there is an enemy on the northern border called Hezbollah, and is waiting for its response to the recent assassination of Commander Foad Shukr in the southern suburb of Beirut.
The situation here is going from bad to worse he says, as sirens sound daily in response to the incoming drones and rockets by Hezbollah painting a gloomy picture and annoyance.
He says there are dozens of destroyed homes, thousands of burned dunams not to say anything about the dead and wounded among Israeli soldiers and the settlers population while driving the fact that there are more than 100,000 settlers who have long been evacuated from the areas of the Galilee.
“We are now without any vital services such as health, banks, educational systems, and more,” he stressed.
Israel is losing the north
Zaltz seriously believes Israel is losing parts of the north part of the country with the population dwindling, local economy paralyzed and there is no schools here. The head of the Council is pressing the Israeli central government for working on a clear strategy to reverse things round and return the Israeli settlers back to the Galilee.
An earlier report aired by the Israeli Channel 12 stated the Israeli settlers have no future here. They are desperate for news that barely reaches them, and they do not know when they will return to their homes as many said.
Psychologically trauma
Israeli newspaper Maariv revealed in the past few days, there has been a significant increase in the number of calls for psychological treatment centers in the northern regions, following the drone attacks and rockets launching from Lebanon on the western Galilee region.
Director of the Social Development Dept Uri Charles Friedland said that there has been a significant increase in the number of recorded calls to psychological treatment centers as the escalation of rockets and sirens continue in these areas.
Friedland explained the Department “is working on three main pillars: Individual care, community support, and rehabilitating authorities in the field of mental health in emergency situations.”
The Israeli media previously revealed an increase in the number of psychological injuries among settlers, admitting they are collapsing psychologically, and that a number of officers and soldiers have already committed suicide after 7 October, 2023 according to Jo.24.
Dr Asmar is an Amman-based writer covering Middle East affairs
