The State Audit Committee, headed by MK Miki Levy, convened today to discuss the public complaints report in the first weeks of the "Iron Swords" war. According to the report, in the first 43 days of the war, 1,329 complaints were submitted to the Ombudsman.
Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman
The bodies receiving the largest number of inquiries were the Home Front Command with 130 inquiries, the National Insurance Institute with 119, and the Ministry of Labor with 74 requests.
Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, Director of the Ombudsman in the State Comptroller's Office, presented one of the main points of the report and said that a few days after the outbreak of the war, they came to the area and heard the distress of the evacuees. "After other bodies arrived, we tried to connect and integrate the bodies. There are people without digital literacy, and often without documents, and we helped them with that. We were in about 85 evacuee centers. In the initial stages, we were alone in the hotels without other bodies."
She also noted complaints from the public about gaps in protection and the Home Front Command's warning system, which was low – which led to the deployment of more alarm systems in various localities, responses to the lack of alert squads, inquiries regarding licenses to carry private firearms, health and mental resilience, complaints regarding problems in the functioning of education and transportation to educational institutions, grants and payments of property tax and the compensation fund, special grants due to the evacuation of residents from southern and northern communities, and reserve compensation.
State Audit Committee (Archive),
At the hearing, Avdon resident and spokeswoman for the community, Adv. Dikla Nasimi, raised the fact that the moshav, which is located 3.7 kilometers from the border, was not evacuated. "Outside the Knesset, there are now elderly people who came with their caregivers to cry out about their return to the inferno. In nine days we will no longer have money from donations to stay at the hotel and they bring us back to the line. How do we get back? How do old people get from the end of a street into a shelter at the end of the street in seconds?"
Gal Gilboa of Rachel (National Emergency Network) replied that the community did not meet the conditions for evacuation as defined by the military, but at the same time the defense minister contacted the minister of finance to recognize these communities due to special needs and that they were waiting for the finance minister's response.
Indescribable perimeters
Amir Dahan, director of the Tax Authority's compensation department, said at the hearing that the compensation fund began working as early as 8 a.m. on Saturday when the war broke out, "We understood the extent of the damage in light of the number of rockets. There were over 100 teams in the field – on the one hand to provide service and on the other hand to protect the lives of the workers. There are still large cases that need to be handled. The Takuma Administration is leading the process, and we will pass the budget, but it has not been fully arranged.
According to him, they are in contact with the mayors, since there are also many places in the north that they cannot enter. In addition, she spoke about compensation for the large number of vehicles damaged. "About 70 percent of the vehicles burned or left on the side of the roads were compensated. We have a dedicated hotline set up for this purpose.
Shlomi in the Galilee, Photo: Moshe Shai
Uriel Kazum, deputy director general of pensions at the National Insurance Institute, said during the discussion: "We visited 280 hotels and where it was possible to make the information accessible, we did so. The scope we are talking about is indescribable. In the first 3 months we gave advances, we work with the communities and communities to save bureaucracy. We need to eventually converge on the law. Every community has a branch manager to make it accessible and assist."
Efrat Rotem, director of the national division of the Union of Social Workers, said at the hearing: "The evacuation centers are the biggest social disaster we have at the moment. You take families and put them in the pressure cooker. We are already seeing worrying phenomena inside hotels: sexual abuse of children, displaced youth who use alcohol and prostitution, the undermining of family relationships, and the state currently has no plan to deal with the welfare crisis."
Gil Horev S., head of the External Relations Division at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said in the discussion that the budget plans for 2024 address post-war issues as a result of evacuation and trauma. "The budget requirement will be hundreds of millions of shekels extra. In every hotel there is a social worker who is supposed to provide a response to protected cases as well. Work is also being done with the youth who do not come to the hotel compounds."
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