As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged mayors of northern communities to try to prevent residents from leaving their homes in the face of relentless Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon, council chiefs fiercely criticized the government over what they called an inadequate effort to protect the citizens.

On Wednesday, northern local council chiefs met with director-generals of government ministries to discuss the situation.

Netanyahu joined the meeting via Zoom and told the mayors, “I ask you to do everything possible to prevent [residents] leaving the communities.”

He admitted that there are problems for the elderly and those with disabilities or special needs, who find it hard to reach safe spaces in the short time available when a rocket attack comes.

Unlike missiles from Iran, there are no early warnings for Hezbollah attacks and norther residents have just seconds to reach shelters after the sirens sound.

Directing his remarks at Drorit Steinmetz, acting director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu said he knows “there are solutions” and they need to be provided in “real time.”

On Thursday, Moshe Davidovich, head of the Matte Asher Regional Council and head of the Conflict Zone Forum, an umbrella group for northern councils, panned the government for not implementing an existing plan to provide reinforced structures for residents.

“Those who are supposed to provide us with answers so that we don’t evacuate are the government,” he told Army Radio.

He recalled that in 2018 the government, under Netanyahu, announced a project to provide rocket shelter protection for communities along the northern border, and noted that in 2026, amid the ongoing rocket fire, there are elderly, unwell people and others who do not have adequate protection.

“People who are in their homes pray. That’s what they do,” he said.

Davidovich said that, unlike during the 2023-2024 clash between Israel and Hezbollah, during which rocket fire led to some 60,000 northern residents being evacuated till the fighting ended, this time residents are still living in cities, towns and villages near the border with Lebanon.

The 2018 plan, titled “Northern Shield,” was meant to fund the construction of bomb shelters and reinforced areas in thousands of homes and in the 5,000-odd non-residential buildings without such provisions within about a kilometer of the border, Channel 12 reported in April 2023. In the plan’s original timetable, the government undertook to transfer NIS 500 million ($138 million) annually for a decade for strengthening buildings.

The government’s budget for 2023-2024 allocated only NIS 100 million ($28 million) for the plan.

On Tuesday, Nuriel Dubin, 27, was killed by a rocket near the Mahanayim Junction in the Upper Galilee region.

Moshav Margaliot head Eitan Davidi, who said he is closely acquainted with Dubin and her family, told the Kan public broadcaster on Wednesday, “Israel has left our personal security in the hands of Lebanon.”

Speaking also to Channel 12, Davidi said that Dubin, who had recently moved to Margaliot in the north, was engaged to be married in September, having met her fiancé during the ongoing war.

“They were waiting for that. They were waiting for the happy day,” he said. “Instead of a wedding, there was a funeral,” he sobbed.

“We knew it would happen,” Davidi said, lamenting that he had “cried out from the depths of my soul anywhere I could,” asking authorities to do something about the situation in the north.

“We are fighting for our homes. We are doing everything we can do. But the country is not behind us. In order to succeed, we need the country. We can’t do it alone.”

גם אחרי שבועות של מטחי ירי, פצועים, הרס וחורבן של עיר וסמל בגבול לבנון לא מצא לנכון ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו להרים צלצול לאביחי שטרן ראש העירייה ולעשות אפילו כאילו הוא מתעניין. תעצרו הכל, תקשיבו לדם ליבו של אביחי. לכל מילה עד הסוף. אם הלב שלכם לא יישבר ולא תדמעו, אתם לא של ישראל pic.twitter.com/T9xDJruhbU — יאיר קראוס (@yair_kraus) March 25, 2026

גם אחרי שבועות של מטחי ירי, פצועים, הרס וחורבן של עיר וסמל בגבול לבנון לא מצא לנכון ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו להרים צלצול לאביחי שטרן ראש העירייה ולעשות אפילו כאילו הוא מתעניין. תעצרו הכל, תקשיבו לדם ליבו של אביחי. לכל מילה עד הסוף. אם הלב שלכם לא יישבר ולא תדמעו, אתם לא של ישראל pic.twitter.com/T9xDJruhbU

— יאיר קראוס (@yair_kraus) March 25, 2026

Also on Wednesday, Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern attacked the government during the meeting with the director-generals of government ministries.

Stern said, “It doesn’t matter how we finish up in Lebanon or Iran — if we lose a city in Israel.”

“For the first time, the city is simply going,” he said. He estimated that there are about 10,000 people left in Kiryat Shmona, which, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, had a population of around 24,000.

“If the situation continues another month, there will be 10 individuals,” he said furiously. “Only those who aren’t able to leave.”

He said the government must urgently evacuate 4,700 homes without suitable protection against rocket fire in his town, along with the elderly, those with disabilities, and those with special needs.

Israel and the US launched a campaign against Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize the regime and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile capacities. Iran has responded with missile and drone strikes across the region, and its proxies in Iraq and Lebanon have also carried out attacks, with Israel launching massive airstrikes in Lebanon in response to the Hezbollah terror group’s rocket barrages.

Rocket fire at the north continued Thursday with an Iranian missile injuring one person from shrapnel, medics said.

According to Magen David Adom, the man was listed in light-to-moderate condition, apparently after a submunition from a cluster bomb warhead or other falling fragments hit the area.

A small number of missiles — including one that carried a cluster bomb warhead — were launched in the attack, the fourth at the country since the morning, triggering sirens across central and northern Israel, the Jerusalem area, and in the West Bank.

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