The Impact of War on Families in Israel

September 6th, 2024 |HaTikva Families

One of the ongoing costs of the current war is the internal displacement of Israeli refugees. It’s a story that hasn’t gotten as much focus as it deserves. Immediately after the October 7th war began with the invasion of Hamas from Gaza, Hezbollah, a separate but aligned terrorist organization in Lebanon, began daily rocket, missile, and drone attacks along the northern border of Israel. These attacks have been at such a scale that it mandated the evacuation of 80,000 people from their homes in the north. Since October 7th, those families have been refugees in their own nation.

They have suffered greatly as they were uprooted from their day-to-day lives, places of work, school, and community and sent to live in hotels for going on 10 months. Can you imagine living in a hotel room with your family for 10 months?

At one such hotel, the Yehudah Hotel in Jerusalem, 35 families had been staying up until July when the hotel could no longer accommodate them. After these long months, they were once again needed to find a place to live, but unable to return home.

Through a partnership with FIRM, HaTikva Project was able to provide these families assistance with 3 months' rent to help ease their transition. For many families this was an emotional and difficult time as the rental of a new apartment came as an admission that they will not soon be returning home. Twenty-one families decided to receive this assistance and our staff lovingly served them as we granted their requests through our war relief fund.

We would like to sincerely thank all of our partners who are allowing us to meet such sensitive and critical needs during these challenging days.