Ministry of Justice field teams have launched a process to provide legal assistance, advice and guidance to the families of victims of October 7 – the evacuees, murdered, abducted and missing. This is part of the Ministry's activity during the emergency period.
This week the staff stayed in Eilat, went through the hotels and offered their help. Since the beginning of the war and the declaration of the state of emergency, lawyers from the Ministry of Justice have been working at three emergency centers: a legal guidance center on general issues for the population evacuated from their homes, a legal aid center for the families of murdered victims, and an emergency hotline of the Registrar of Inheritances – for urgent handling of inheritances and wills.
The centers provide the evacuees with answers to various legal questions on issues relating to the state of war. For example, questions regarding employment status and rights during a state of emergency, questions regarding debts and deferral of payments, social security matters, etc. are answered.
The evacuees in Eilat, photo: AFP
Over the past two weeks, the teams have worked in evacuation compounds in central Israel and in hotels on the Dead Sea, and as mentioned this week, 25 lawyers worked with the evacuees staying in Eilat. Attorney Gilad Erlich of the Ministry of Justice's Service Division, who serves as the field manager of the activity, explains that the teams assist, among other things, families who have lost loved ones in exercising their entitlements as victims of hostilities and the like: "We realized that in places where there are destroyed communities, no one will initiate an appeal. They are not emotionally available to talk or pick up the phone, so we decided to send teams out into the field," he explains, adding: "We discovered that there is a very great need. There is community trauma, people are in mourning. Their lives have come to a standstill, and we are trying to help and ease them with the bureaucracy, even in matters that are not within the scope of the Justice Ministry."
Evicted at a hotel at the Dead Sea
So far, the teams have sat individually with more than 200 families. "We live the stories. Our employees are exposed to significant secondary trauma, but I wouldn't give it up for a moment. I feel that we are providing a response in real time, that we are seeing them," Erlich noted.
The Justice Ministry is now trying to reach the families of those murdered at the nature party in Re'im to provide them with assistance, noting that unlike families from the Gaza Strip, who are concentrated in communities in hotels throughout the country, it is more difficult to reach the families of these victims.
Telephone responses and guidance can be obtained at the Ministry of Justice hotlines: Legal guidance: 073-392-8666, legal assistance to families whose loved ones were murdered: 073-392-8999, Registrar of Inheritances: 077-7716411.
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