Funding for evacuees from communities near Lebanon and Gaza staying in hotels and self-arranged housing will be extended until Feb. 28, the Israeli Cabinet announced on Sunday.
According to Israel’s Tourism Ministry, around 13,580 internally displaced persons remain in hotels and other state-funded accommodations, while 54,555 evacuees (including approximately 4,200 from the south) are living in self-arranged housing, receiving a subsistence allotment.
The Tourism Ministry has been overseeing the accommodation of evacuees from the north and south in hundreds of hotels and thousands of additional properties for more than a year.
The total cost of the evacuation effort is estimated at more than 9 billion shekels ($2.45 billion), with the Tourism Ministry having paid about 6 billion shekels ($1.63 billion) to hotels and property owners.
“Minister [Haim] Katz’s initiative—to allow evacuees who choose to do so to receive a self-housing allotment of 200 shekels [$54.50] per adult per day and 100 shekels [$27.25] per child per day—has saved the state more than 5 billion shekels [$1.36 billion]. This, as a result of the difference between the rates paid to hotels and the cost of self-arranged housing,” the Tourism Ministry said in a statement.
Around 250,000 Israelis were evacuated from their homes near the Gaza and Lebanese borders following the Hamas-led ground invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Hezbollah rocket and mortar attacks from the north.
