Residents of Be’eri, Nir Oz and Kfar Aza will only be able to return home in two to three years, Brig. Gen. Moshe Edri, the head of the government body overseeing the rehabilitation of the Gaza border region, said on Tuesday.
Tekuma Authority chief Edri said that residents of these communities would be set up in temporary housing until then, according to Israel’s Channel 12.
In December, Israel’s Cabinet approved the outline for a strategic multi-year plan to rehabilitate and develop the Gaza Strip-adjacent “Tekuma” region and its population.
The plan comprises a broad budgetary framework for five years (2024-2028) of up to 18 billion shekels ($4.9 billion) intended to lead to the rehabilitation of the towns and villages destroyed by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday barred farming activities within four kilometers (2.5 miles) of the Gaza border, following a new assessment amid an uptick in rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.
Farming in fields beyond four kilometers of the frontier will require special approval by the military.
Four IDF soldiers were killed and at least 10 others were wounded on Sunday when Hamas terrorists fired more than a dozen mortar shells from the Rafah area of southern Gaza at Kibbutz Kerem Shalom.
The attack comes as the military prepares for an offensive in the last Hamas bastion along the Egyptian border should the terrorist organization reject Jerusalem’s latest truce offer, described by U.S. mediators as the most generous yet from the Israeli side.
