Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday allocations of 13 billion shekels (more than $4.5 billion) to secure and develop northern communities along the Lebanon border, battered by weeks of fire from Iran-backed Hezbollah.
"The government made dramatic decisions today to strengthen the north. We are investing more than 13 billion shekels today, in addition to the seven billion we have already provided -- a total of 20 billion shekels going to the communities of the north," Netanyahu said following the government's approval of the measure.
The package, dubbed a "mega-plan" by Netanyahu's office, consists of three separate decisions.
The first will see the deployment of 1,800 new protective shelters in public spaces such as bus stops, shopping centers and parks, as well as the renovation of around 500 existing shelters, to shield residents from incoming rockets and drones.
The second decision allocates subsidies for the construction of safe rooms inside homes for residents living within nine kilometers (5.6 miles) of the Lebanon border, while the third aims to develop the area in order to attract 100,000 new residents, by improving health, transport, education and tourism infrastructure as well as job opportunities.
"People will flock to the north. I said the same about the south," Netanyahu said, referring to areas close to Gaza that were attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
"Today there is very strong demand there; there is tremendous growth and flourishing -- and that is what will happen here as well."
The government has taken flak from opposition figures who accuse it of neglecting areas along the Lebanon border.
Opposition party leaders Yair Lapid, Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett took to X on Monday night to point out that only three government ministers attended the cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in the north.
"The residents of the north deserve leadership that will see them and take care of them," Eisenkot wrote on X.
