photo credit: Maariv, June 2024
As the northern front heats up, JDC is there, preparing residents for the worst.
Each day, residents of northern Israel wake to news of yet another rocket or drone attack, of fires blazing in the once lush fields near their homes. Warning sirens and the sound of explosions have become a part of daily life. Recently, the attack in Majdal Shams that killed 12 children made the reality even more desperate.
The situation in the north is urgent, with a looming and imminent threat of further escalation.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in the region face grave dangers to their security and well-being. Many of these Israelis are elderly, have disabilities, or are socioeconomically disadvantaged. They face barriers in accessing essential services and coping with the stress and trauma of living under fire. They need immediate and effective assistance to protect their lives and dignity.
JDC is addressing the most pressing needs of the residents of the embattled northern region, and helping communities prepare them for a widescale escalation of war.
Immediate Humanitarian Aid for Vulnerable Populations in the North
Need: Hezbollah’s rocket attacks have disrupted life for over 300,000 Israelis in northern Israel. 60,000 residents were evacuated by the government in the early days following October 7th, and tens of thousands more remain in their homes, contending with daily threats. Local authorities, lacking resources, struggle to support residents amid threats of escalation of war. Immediate action is crucial to help communities reach out to vulnerable citizens and ensure emergency preparedness.
Solution: JDC is implementing a two-stage emergency preparedness plan that will directly aid nearly 150,000 of the most vulnerable Israelis living in the north.
Stage One – Preparedness: We are already in the midst of an operation in 15 northern towns to provide vulnerable residents with personalized emergency kits (tailored to the needs of different populations, and in their own languages). During the outreach to these residents, we are also assessing their needs and gathering information, in order to plan for the provision of urgent assistance should further escalation of emergency occur. This outreach is being provided to:
- People with disabilities – to help them find the safest accessible locations in their homes during rocket fire.
- Families in distress with young children – to offer activity kits for children in case of school closures, and to connect with relevant community support.
- Older adults – to provide emergency kits that include basic exercise equipment, cognitive activities, and easy-to-use household items in case of power outages.
Stage Two – Response in the Event of Escalation of War: Direct aid to the most vulnerable individuals if the security situation worsens, including evacuation support, medical supplies, and psychological assistance, utilizing the groundwork laid in Stage One for an efficient life-saving response.
Providing Emergency Medical Kits to Civilian First-response Teams
Need: Hezbollah’s rocket attacks pose a constant threat to northern Israel, necessitating equipped and trained civilian first-response teams to provide immediate aid to the injured.
Solution: JDC has leveraged its expertise in disaster response to procure and distribute hundreds of emergency aid kits and training to first-response civilian teams, in partnership
with the Ministry of Health. The kits contain items such as ventilators, intubation tubes, and burn bandages, and have proved to be crucial during recent attacks. With escalating conflict, there’s a growing demand across the northern border region for more kits and training.
Protecting Families and Children in Distress
Need: The repercussions of this war have cast a shadow over the lives of countless children and their parents, who are still grappling with fear and uncertainty, and are displaying symptoms of stress and anxiety. This includes tens of thousands of children from all backgrounds in northern Israel who have been living under constant rocket fire for ten months. Parents and teachers are struggling to help them cope after such a long time and will have to deal with even more challenges with child development, education, and risky behaviors, should escalation continue.
Solution: JDC is preparing a number of emergency services to address the needs of families and children, including:
- Training early childhood caregivers to support young children: JDC is already providing training in coping with stress and trauma to daycare and early childhood staff, family social workers and teachers in the north (Jewish and Arab towns), in part to help them weather the ongoing conflict, and in part to prepare them in case things get worse. JDC continues to expand the Hibuki early childhood trauma treatment program in the north.
- Guidance in setting up temporary school frameworks: In the event of a large-scale evacuation, thousands of children will need daycare and schooling solutions. JDC is preparing for this scenario by creating a manual for the establishment of temporary schools. In addition, we are writing a training curriculum for teachers in temporary frameworks and recruiting educational consultants to be on standby for guidance. All this is being prepared based on our experience setting up temporary educational frameworks for evacuees from the south at the beginning of the war.
- Support for evacuee children from the north in temporary locations: In the event that more people will be evacuated from the north, JDC will provide support to young children and their parents in absorbing cities through Early Childhood Centers: speech therapy, occupational therapy, parent-child activities, group support, etc. JDC will also provide pregnant and new mothers with social-emotional support.
- In the event of escalation of the war on the northern front and evacuation of additional locations, JDC’s team of Mobile Benefits Units will visit evacuation centers, to provide legal and social benefits advice, and help displayed citizens access the government rights they are eligible for. The Benefits Units, trained by JDC, are made up of lawyers, social workers, and financial experts, who are familiar with government benefits and how to apply for them.
Assisting Older Adults in Distress
Need: Among those suffering are Israel’s elderly. The war has turned government attention elsewhere, straining budgets and manpower, even as needs are increasing. Local social services are overwhelmed, and in the general chaos of war, older adults are being overlooked. The lack of resources at a time of heightened stress puts Israel’s elderly at increased risk of injury, severe decline, isolation, and stress-related illness. JDC is one of the only organizations caring for displaced elderly Israelis and those suffering the stresses of war.
Solution: To meet these urgent needs, JDC is providing and expanding the following services:
- Community Caseworkers who reach out to isolated older adults in cities in the north and those from the north who have been evacuated, identifying those who need assistance and lack a support network. Caseworkers connect these older adults with immediate emotional support and helpful community resources. We plan to add an additional 90 caseworkers to serve 72 towns in northern Israel where a potential escalation looms.
- Social and wellbeing activities for older adults from northern towns, and those who have been evacuated to hotels around the country, to help provide routine during these stressful times, and to help prevent physical, emotional, and cognitive decline. Since the start of the war, JDC has been operating pop-up Day Centers for the Elderly in hotels and cities housing displaced elderly from the north (and south) around the country. These frameworks alleviate loneliness, offer exercise classes, craftwork, entertainment, physical therapy, trauma counseling, social activities, and more. We are preparing to open another 40-50 centers to serve over 18,000 elderly likely to be evacuated in the case of an escalation in the north.
Keeping Essential Businesses and Services Running
JDC aims to maintain essential services amid potential war by preparing for worker shortages. Since October 7th, JDC has been addressing the challenge of making sure that critical industries can continue working, ensuring the provision of food, healthcare, and security. This crucial effort involves two initiatives:
1. Readying Emergency Workers for Essential Industries in Israel’s North
Need: Post-October 7th, the Ministry of Economy established a National Employment Coordination Center to keep essential businesses and services operational by providing temporary workers to fill gaps due to the war. The center supported food production,
supermarkets, gas stations, security, and transportation sectors. A northern escalation would lead to another destabilizing shortage of workers, with severe difficulties in transportation and workplace accessibility.
Solution: JDC is helping to scale up the Employment Coordination Center’s infrastructure to cover the north. This includes identifying key businesses and the necessary jobs, locations, and numbers needed in case of war. A database of 2,000 emergency workers for critical industries will be created, with recruits on standby to be deployed to critical industries like food and distribution, where they will be sent to factories, farms, supermarkets, logistical centers, and transportation and security companies, based on location. If a war breaks out, we will also open a large volunteer center in the north – similar to the one we established after October 7th – that will train and place volunteers from the ultraorthodox and Arab populations to fill vacant roles.
2. Mobilizing Public Sector Workers During the Emergency
Need: After October 7th, hundreds of public sector workers (doctors, nurses, welfare workers, early childhood educators, etc.) were called to work immediately for long stretches of time, which was a major challenge for those workers, and hardly sustainable for long-term emergencies. If war with Hezbollah escalates in the north, a similar issue will arise – with hundreds of critical public sector workers needed urgently to work long hours and more days, but no one to help mobilize them and their families accordingly.
Solution: To address this need, JDC is working to enhance an existing digital platform, “Ha’Masayaat”, that helps locate and place ad hoc childcare workers for health professionals suddenly called to hospitals. The platform is effective, but limited in scope, and JDC is expanding it to include other professions that will be called to action during a war scenario in the north. The platform will recruit and mobilize skilled professionals to assume temporary roles at short notice in three service areas: welfare, healthcare, and education. This will require cooperation across government ministries for needs assessment and candidate validation.
Support for People with Disabilities
Need: Amid daily sirens and disruptions to routine, people with disabilities in the north face unbelievable challenges, especially those whose disability hinders their ability to get to shelter quickly. People with disabilities generally suffer from a lack of information and emotional support, and especially so in times of emergency when resources are focused elsewhere.
Solution: The Safe Homes program improves safety in the homes of people with disabilities who live in missile-prone areas in northern and southern Israel and who do not have safe rooms or shelters accessible in their homes or buildings. To ensure that people with disabilities in the
north can get to safe spaces in time, JDC will bring a team of experts to each person’s home, to determine the safest place in their home or building and equip it to be accessible. Currently operating in Ashkelon and Nahariya, the program is expanding to include four additional cities in northern Israel: Tzfat, Akko, Haifa, and Tiberias.
In addition, JDC’s Virtual Center for Independent Living provides a digital platform for dependable, accessible information and services for people with disabilities and their caregivers through a website, Facebook page, and information hotline. This platform is at the ready with emergency-related information pertaining to disabilities, as well as support groups and webinars, and will be re-launched immediately if an additional front of the war breaks out in the north, to help people with disabilities cope with the crisis.
Addressing Trauma and Mental Health
Need: Over 60,000 evacuees from the north, as well as tens of thousands more who remain in their homes on the northern border, are coping with extreme stress, anxiety, trauma, and other mental health challenges. The public health system is overwhelmed and can’t reach everyone who needs assistance.
Solution: Through our National Mental Health Initiative, JDC aims to bolster the range of mental health services available in the north, and to reach as many citizens as possible. Some of the specific ways we are doing that include the following initiatives:
- Quiet Rooms are designed to restore calm and a sense of security amidst trauma, loss, and stress. The rooms – which are staffed by occupational therapists and facilitators – offer a safe haven from the overwhelming stimuli of crowded evacuee hotels and rehabilitation centers. We are preparing to open 2-3 additional Quiet Rooms for evacuees from northern Israel, should the situation require.
- The Nafshi online mental health platform enables Israelis to navigate hundreds of existing mental health resources and services to find the support they need, quickly and responsibly (as all the services have been vetted for quality). Visitors to Nafshi can filter services by age, location, target population (e.g. bereaved parent, evacuee), type of response (e.g. online resources, creative therapies), and other categories. JDC is in the process of vetting and adding additional resources to support residents of the north, both locally and virtually.
- Hibuki trauma treatments for young children provides a therapeutic response for younger children within the education system, and guides parents in helping their children cope with traumatic events. JDC is already implementing Hibuki in the north.
Laying the Groundwork for Recovery: Strengthening and Revitalizing the Northern Border Region for the Long Term
Need: The emergency situation in northern Israel has laid bare the many challenges already faced by Israel’s northern periphery – many northern communities lag behind the rest of the country in services such as healthcare, employment, access to public transportation, and higher education. Improving services and the standard of living in the north is necessary to facilitate the return of residents (and attract new ones) and to foster the region’s growth.
Solution: JDC is working with 24 local authorities in the north, together with the national government, to ensure they have the resources and know how to better serve residents – both during the current crisis, and for long-term rehabilitation.
JDC is helping these northern communities develop immediate emergency responses and long-term development projects, through close consultation and guidance. These plans focus on re-integrating evacuees when they return home, as well as providing services for vulnerable populations (such as elderly, the unemployed, youth at risk, and people with disabilities). Our work with each city will help them implement plans to improve community infrastructure, employment opportunities and economic development, housing, tourism, and agriculture.