Israeli military eases some safety restrictions in northern Israel
The Home Front Command is allowing larger gatherings and schools to reopen in border communities in Israel and in the north of the occupied Golan Heights, according to local media, as a ceasefire with Hezbollah continues to hold.
Under the changes, up to 200 people will be allowed to gather in open spaces and up to 600 can gather in closed spaces, The Times of Israel reported.
Schools in the area will also be allowed to operate if adequate shelter can be reached in time, it said. Beaches in the north, however, will remain closed.
Displaced Israelis reluctant to return home despite ceasefire: Report
The AFP news agency is reporting that many Israelis who fled their homes in the border town of Kiryat Shmona are not ready to move back despite the ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Rakhel Revach, 57, told the agency that she wanted to return with “full security”.
“As long as there is no full security and I still hear booms and see the army inside [Lebanon], I am not willing to return,” she said.
Doron Shnaper, spokesman for the Kiryat Shmona municipality, told the agency that most residents of the town had yet to return.
“They will not return until the war is officially declared over,” he said. “From the experience of past years … ceasefires have always been fragile… What if the residents return and again missiles fall? Then what was the point of being displaced for a year and two months?”
Some 60,000 Israelis fled their homes in northern Israel after Hezbollah launched attacks on the country in the wake of the war on Gaza.
