Damning audit reveals chaos, mismanagement and abandonment of tens of thousands during wartime displacement crisis.
Israel’s State Comptroller has released a series of hard-hitting reports detailing deep systemic failures in the government’s preparedness and handling of mass evacuations during wartime. The findings paint a troubling picture of fragmented leadership, poor coordination, and serious breakdowns in civilian support systems.
The audit determined that no organized evacuation plan had been prepared in advance for Kiryat Shmona, despite its frontline exposure. The municipality itself was unprepared for the full evacuation of its approximately 24,000 residents once hostilities escalated.
In the south, the Eshkol Regional Council was found to have demonstrated readiness. However, the cities of Ashkelon and Sderot were criticized for maintaining outdated resident data, severely limiting real-time communication and coordination during emergency conditions.
A central failure highlighted in the report concerns information management. The Ministry of the Interior declined to activate the “Noah’s Ark” system, originally established to manage evacuee intake and tracking. Instead, the Home Front Command was forced to operate improvised mechanisms. Delays in transferring data between the National Insurance Institute, government ministries, and local authorities hampered efforts to locate displaced residents and deliver essential services.
The education system suffered significant gaps. Of approximately 48,000 evacuated students, around 16 percent were missing from official reporting systems as of January 2024. The Ministry of Education had not prepared a structured plan to rapidly absorb displaced teachers into host schools. Many children housed in hotels faced prolonged instability and insufficient academic and emotional support.
In the welfare sector, the Ministry of Welfare had no dedicated emergency framework to care for evacuated teenagers residing in temporary accommodations. Receiving municipalities struggled to identify at-risk individuals due to incomplete data, often relying on volunteers and local initiatives to fill critical gaps.
The report further notes that the Ministry of the Interior’s failure to activate the PSH Evacuation, Assistance, and Sheltering system forced local authorities and civil society to assume responsibility for providing food, hygiene products, and basic necessities during the first weeks of displacement. The Comptroller commended host cities such as Eilat, Tiberias, and Jerusalem for stepping in to fill what was described as a governmental vacuum.
Financial losses have been severe. Examined costs and lost income for evacuated communities and host authorities reached approximately 316 million shekels by the end of 2023. Municipal corporations in conflict-zone communities incurred an additional estimated 123 million shekels in operational losses. The deployment of the Israel Defense Forces in residential areas caused significant damage to infrastructure and agriculture.
The Comptroller’s overarching conclusion is stark. Due to the absence of decisive governmental leadership, no single authority in Israel holds comprehensive responsibility for managing the civilian home front during emergencies. Overlapping jurisdictions, inter-ministerial disputes, and bureaucratic fragmentation contributed to deteriorating service quality and widespread inefficiency at a time when citizens required clarity, speed, and coordinated protection.
