NORTHERN ISRAEL — The Israeli government approved a 13 billion shekel program for northern border communities on June 2, 2026. The measure supplements an existing 7 billion shekel budget, bringing total funding for the region to 20 billion shekels.
The package includes three main components. The first allocates approximately 150 million shekels to build 1,800 new public bomb shelters and renovate 500 existing ones in communities near the Lebanon border. The second provides about 6.6 billion shekels to subsidize in-home bomb shelters, compensate homeowners for war damage, and reinforce building structures within 9 kilometers of the border. The third is a five-year, 5.6 billion shekel plan to rehabilitate war-affected areas and develop infrastructure in healthcare, transportation, local industry, and agriculture to encourage population retention and growth.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement claiming the proposal as his and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's joint initiative. Netanyahu was absent for much of the government meeting on Tuesday evening when the plan was approved. The Knesset held a special meeting on the North earlier that day before the proposals were voted on in the plenum.
"What the Government approved today are dramatic decisions to strengthen the North," Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday night. "We are talking about the area from the Lebanese border line, nine kilometers south. This is an area that is crying out for development, and it is receiving it, first and foremost, through the strengthening of communities, infrastructure, and housing, as well as through an additional component, fortification." He added, "Fortification is an addition to security. It is not the sole component of security, nor is it the foundation of security, but it is an addition to security in the major struggle we are waging against Hezbollah, and we will succeed in it."
Critics questioned the government's commitment to northern residents. "Only three ministers came to the special meeting on the North," opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on Twitter/X. "Netanyahu wasn't one of them." Yashar Party head Gadi Eisenkot posted, "The prime minister was absent from the meeting on the North. The residents of the North deserve leadership that will see them and take care of them."