Sixty-four Israelis whose homes were damaged by Iranian missiles during “Operation Roaring Lion” against Tehran are still living in hotels, Knesset lawmakers heard on Wednesday.
The evacuees are temporarily being housed in 11 hotels across the Jewish state, a representative of the Israel Tax Authority’s Compensation Fund told members of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs.
“According to our projections, by mid-June there will no longer be any evacuees staying in hotels, and everyone will either move into apartments or return to their homes,” Sigal Kochavi said. “No resident who has been evacuated to a hotel is left without housing; everyone transitions to alternative accommodation at the end of their hotel stay.”
There are no known cases of new immigrants who remain displaced from their homes, an official with the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration stressed.
“Throughout this process, we focused on the issue of evacuated immigrant families, but from the moment we began this work, we have been concerned with all evacuees,” said committee chairman Gilad Kariv, a lawmaker for Israel’s far-left The Democrats Party.
“I request that the Israel Tax Authority submit updated data to the committee regarding all evacuees who were displaced during ‘Operation Rising Lion,’” he added. “The Tax Authority operated under extremely heavy pressure, yet it succeeded in delivering satisfactory results and drew lessons from the previous round of fighting with Iran.”
The war between Washington and Tehran began on Feb. 28 with joint American and Israeli military strikes on the Iranian regime. A ceasefire has been in place since April 8.
