7.5 billion for housing and employment, 400 million for mental health: the government will discuss the plan for the rehabilitation of the

This week the government will discuss a five-year plan for the rehabilitation of settlements surrounding Gaza. The plan will reach the Knesset as a bill – the ‘Revival of the Resurrection Law’ – and the Knesset is expected to approve it by the end of June. Its implementation should begin at the end of 2024.

The plan was drawn up in recent months in cooperation between Takuma’s directorate and the Prime Minister’s Office. Its purpose is to secure budgetary anchors for the reconstruction process that will take place in the coming years – with an emphasis on the rehabilitation of the settlements that were damaged in the attack on the seventh of October.

The Takuma Administration was established at the end of October, and has already begun the first stage of the rehabilitation, which was allocated 3 billion NIS. Total costs, according to the bill, will amount to 19 billion NIS.

According to the document presented last week to the heads of councils in Otef, the state will invest 5.3 billion NIS in residential and employment solutions; 4.6 billion NIS in the education, health and welfare systems; 2.2 billion NIS in employment development; 1.2 billion NIS in local security systems; 1.1 billion NIS in agriculture; and 300 million NIS in commemoration and heritage.

The bulk of the budget investment will be in the years 2024-2025, mainly because of the amounts required for the rehabilitation of the settlements. Some of the settlements in the Gaza Envelope were severely damaged physically, and the state will be required to rebuild neighborhoods, alongside providing compensation and grants to residents (occupancy grants, return grants, temporary settlements).

Civil security, agriculture and informal education

The administration believes that by the end of 2025 the physical rehabilitation is expected to be completed, and most of the budgets will go to upgrade the infrastructure and services for the public in the councils – roads, railways, educational and sports buildings, resilience centers and more.

Sapir College is expected to undergo a significant upgrade. A regional rehabilitation center is expected to be built, as well as a southern faculty for Wingate College. Each student in the education system in Otef will receive an additional 10,000 NIS, mainly for the benefit of informal education and enrichment and excellence programs in the schools.

The mental health system alone will be budgeted at approximately NIS 400 million. Another hundreds of millions of shekels will be allocated to an employment assistance system, to exhaust rights for employees, to renew small and medium-sized businesses, to a center for victims of sexual assault, and to significantly increase the social work system in the region.

The civil security system in the region will be significantly upgraded. 60 million NIS will be allocated for the construction of a new police station in Sderot, and tens of millions more for police, fire and rescue points and security systems for educational institutions. 150 million NIS will be allocated for the construction of a memorial site for those murdered in October.

In the field of construction, the state will provide up to half a million NIS in grants to build houses for young people and families – as part of a system to encourage the absorption of families into Otef. 200 million NIS will be dedicated to promoting urban renewal in Sderot, and about 150 million NIS to the development of parks and nature sites.

In the field of agriculture, more than NIS 300 million will go to moshavim and kibbutzim for local rehabilitation and development. The directorate will promote the renewal of the greenhouses and crop complexes throughout the surrounding area, the addition of agricultural areas, the creation of development centers and coordination between all the surrounding farms, and the establishment of a venture capital fund to promote agrotech companies.