State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman warned that Israel was not prepared to evacuate the population from the North in the event of war, according to a letter sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put things in order, "There is no room for the lack of consensus that has lasted for so long; a unified and orderly government action is required."
Englman's letter highlights the complete disorganization of the government's evacuation plans in which different Ministries are in major disagreement with each other over their responsibilities towards evacuees, this is despite the war having started over nine months ago.
Israel’s North has been under near-constant attack since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and rocket and drone attacks have been increasing significantly in the past few weeks, with some attacks leading to large fires in the area.
As tensions escalate, the country braces for a potential all-out war on the northern front
Englman has had difficulty conducting full audits of the country's situation since October 7, when the High Court of Justice blocked the audit over security concerns in mid-June.
During an audit of the government's evacuation of residents of the North and South, they found that "the Interior Ministry, including the Emergency Services Authority (ESA), has not fulfilled its responsibility for managing the reception of evacuees from both the South and the North."
Minster vs Minster
One of the major disputes highlighted by the audit is between the Interior and Defense Ministries. The Interior Ministry claims it is only responsible for evacuating those "proactively" evacuated by the state and then only to bring them to schools, per a government decision, and not to bring them to hotels.
The Defense Ministry disputes this, saying that the Interior Ministry has a responsibility to provide for all evacuees regardless of whether they were "proactively" evacuated by the state or chose to evacuate independently.
The dispute has not been resolved, and Englman hopes the audit will shed light on the damage caused by the dispute.
Disputes have plagued the government and hampered its ability to produce unified action on the war. Last week, disputes arose inside the Likud party over the appointment of a director to lead the rehabilitation in the North.
The appointee faced opposition from two Likud MKs who sought to appoint their own candidates to the role and led to a scuffle in the Likud camp when Netanyahu had to admonish them for putting the interests ahead of the country's residents.
Failure to activate the Emergency Services Authority
Another major issue highlighted by Englman is that the ESA has not been activated. The ESA is responsible for planning, guiding, coordinating, and supervising the reception system for evacuated populations in emergencies (and also for handling civilian casualties).
Englman emphasizes that the use of the ESA would help facilitate the arrival of evacuees to new communities and "address gaps in coordination with government ministries."
The audit also uncovered a letter dated June 25 from Interior Minister Moshe Arbel to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in which Arbel shirked responsibility for managing the evacuees' stay in hotels, saying "The Guest Hotel program and the Interior Ministry's responsibility for receiving independent evacuees - is not feasible... and therefore the Ministry opposes it.
In his letter, Englman showed that just in the case of Kiryat Shmona, the city's population has been shattered, with residents being housed in over 300 different locations in Israel in "an unorganized and uncoordinated manner between government ministries."
He says this has left the city municipality unable to serve its residents by providing schooling, health, and other regular municipal services.
Englman calls on Netanyahu to resolve this dispute between the Ministries before calling for an evacuation of the North, calling the current situation unacceptable.
He ended with a strong warning for the Prime Minister: "At this time, there is no place for a situation of unresolved disagreements that have lasted so long. Unified and organized government action is required to optimize the treatment of the population evacuated from their homes."
Eliav Breuer and Eve Young contributed to this report.