The KKL-JNF Jewish National Fund announced Wednesday that it will invest NIS 284 million ($95 million) to strengthen southern Israel.

Two of the kibbutzim worst hit by the Hamas invasion, Be’eri and Kfar Aza, will each receive NIS 20 million ($6.7 million) over three years for physical rehabilitation and commemoration.

The sum includes NIS 15 million ($5 million) to enable Kibbutz Kfar Aza to decide how to memorialize those who were massacred when Hamas invaded on October 7, 2023. Terrorists slaughtered 64 of the kibbutz’s 787 residents, and abducted 19 to the Gaza Strip. Those kidnapped were eventually returned, either dead or alive.

A KKL-JNF statement said this particular funding decision followed a dispute with the Heritage Ministry, which had offered NIS 2 million ($670,000), conditioned on its involvement and veto power over the nature of the commemoration.

“The agreement with Kfar Aza will stipulate that no party has veto power over how the community chooses to commemorate October 7, allowing residents to determine how they tell their story and honor those who were murdered and those who fell,” the statement said.

The bulk of funds will be dedicated to long-term development across the Lachish region, the Western Negev, the Beersheba metropolis, and the Arava in the country’s far south.

Over NIS 110 million ($37 million) of the total sum will be earmarked for the Gaza border region, where some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were........

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