The Israel Defense Forces has notified civilian Gaza border security teams that it will reduce budgets for a second time since the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023, in light of an “operational situation assessment.”

The cuts will be implemented after the Jewish holiday season, which ends in mid-October.

Civilian first-response teams are made up of volunteers, often men in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns.

Teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.

Immediately after the Hamas massacre, which saw 1,200 mainly civilians murdered (including 46 first response volunteers) and 251 abducted to the Gaza Strip, surviving team members returned to help defend their villages as reserve soldiers on full pay.

About a year ago, by which time many of them had returned to work, the security team budget for each community was reduced by around five percent.

This time, it will decrease by 10-20%, according to an IDF spokeswoman.

She emphasized that the number of people in each first-response team would remain the same, as would their weapons and equipment.

The civilian security coordinator in each location would determine how to allocate the reduced budget to ensure that members on active reserve duty, such as those undergoing training, were paid. In cases where there were not enough volunteers from the community, he was........

© The Times of Israel