Ninety percent of residents evacuated from the Gaza Envelope after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre have returned home, according to new figures released on Wednesday by the Tekuma Authority.
The government body, established after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack to oversee the rehabilitation of the border area, said that at least some residents have returned to 42 of the 47 evacuated communities.
In addition, more than 2,500 new residents have moved to the Western Negev since Oct. 7, most of them to the city of Sderot, the Tekuma Authority said.
Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, one of the closest communities to Gaza, has seen 88% of its residents return along with six new families, while Kibbutz Re’im reported a 95% return rate and 10 new families. Similar trends were reported in Kibbutz Sufa, Nir Yitzhak, Nirim, Ein HaShlosha and Netiv HaAsara.
However, at Kibbutz Nahal Oz — where 15 residents were murdered and eight kidnapped to Gaza on Oct. 7 — only about a third of families have returned, with many citing the trauma of the attack, the ongoing war and concerns for their children’s mental health.
Other communities devastated on Oct. 7 — including Nir Oz, Kfar Aza, Be’eri, Kissufim and Holit — also remain largely displaced, with some residents expected to remain in evacuation centers until 2027.
“Most residents have come back to rebuild, joined by thousands of new families,” said Aviad Friedman, head of the Tekuma Authority. “Even in the most severely affected communities, returnees show determination to restore homes and communities. We are building not just for today, but for a safer, thriving future.”
As of February, about 85% of the roughly 65,000 residents of the Gaza Envelope — nearly all of whom were evacuated after Oct. 7 — had returned home, while some 11,000 remained in state-funded accommodations.
In July, the Israel Defense Forces canceled an order that defined the civilian communities near the Gaza border as a closed military zone. A month earlier, IDF officials told heads of local authorities in the Gaza border area that it was safe for all residents to return home.
