Israel Defense Forces officials told heads of local authorities in the Gaza Envelope area on Tuesday that there are no security hurdles preventing the return of all residents to their homes, Hebrew media reported.
“There are no security obstacles to returning to the communities,” OC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor told the local leaders, according to Channel 12 News. Also present at the meeting were Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, according to the report.
As of February, some 85% of Gaza Envelope’s 64,000 residents, who were almost all evacuated following Oct. 7, were back home, with only 11,000 still living in temporary, state-funded accommodations.
Milo stressed that, 612 days after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, the threat level facing the communities along the Samaria security barrier was now higher than in the Gaza Envelope border region.
“If you were to ask me where the threat is much greater today—Bat Hefer is facing a much greater threat than Yakhini,” Milo emphasized, referring to a village east of Netanya in the Sharon plain and a Gaza border community where seven people were killed on Oct. 7, respectively.
However, Katz stated that the security establishment had identified more attempts by Hamas to smuggle arms into the Gaza Strip with the help of the “regional axis,” in a reference to Iranian-backed terrorist elements.
In response to the Channel 12 article, the Hefer Valley Regional Council called on the Israeli government to recognize Bat Hefer as a “frontline core community, with all the security implications that entails.”
Last year, Palestinian terrorists remotely detonated powerful explosives near the fence bordering Bat Hefer. The blast took place only 197 feet from the fence and was preceded by rifle fire towards central Israel.
Bat Hefer has repeatedly been targeted by Palestinian fire from Samaria, in particular from the Tulkarem area, where IDF soldiers have been operating intensely to thwart terrorist activities since late January.