Tel Aviv [Israel], September 10 (ANI/TPS): A damning report by Israel's State Comptroller, released on Wednesday, revealed widespread government failures in protecting and assisting civilians during the June war with Iran, which left thousands of evacuated residents without proper support and compensation.
The audit, prepared by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, found that no comprehensive government agency managed the evacuation of residents whose homes were damaged during 12 days of Iranian missile barrages. The attacks killed 31 people and damaged tens of thousands of residences, forcing around 11,000 to evacuate their homes to hotels and guesthouses around the country.
The State Comptroller, also known as the State Ombudsman, periodically releases reports auditing Israeli preparedness and the effectiveness of government policies.
The Public Complaints Commission operated a special hotline for 32 days, receiving approximately 700 inquiries related to the emergency. More than half of all complaints concerned shelter functionality, war-damage compensation, and evacuation procedures. The entities drawing the most complaints were the Tax Authority, the Bnei Brak Municipality, and the Bat Yam Municipality.
Local authorities were left to handle evacuations independently under guidance from the National Emergency Authority, creating significant problems. "Each head of the authority decided on the hotels to which residents would be evacuated, without setting criteria and rules such as rates, distance from the city, [or] those eligible for evacuation," Englman wrote in the report. This led to payment gaps of up to three times between what different authorities paid hotels for the same services.
The lack of coordination produced chaotic scenes. During one incident detailed in the report, elderly residents from a Tel Aviv assisted-living facility hit by a missile were shuttled between three different Jerusalem hotels. The first hotel had bathtubs instead of showers, unsuitable for their physical conditions -- while the second lacked wheelchair-accessible protective spaces. Only at the third hotel, outside Jerusalem, did they find appropriate accommodations.
Evacuees faced additional hardships due to unclear timelines for their hotel stays. One single mother, who was 100 per cent disabled and receiving welfare, contacted the Ombudsman after being told by Bat Yam Municipality representatives that her hotel stay would be brief, causing significant anxiety about her housing situation.
The compensation process proved equally problematic. From the war's beginning until August 10, 2025, the Tax Authority received 52,183 claims at compensation fund centers. Many complained about difficulties obtaining clear information and inconsistencies in assessor-determined compensation amounts.
Bereaved parents whose Ramat Gan home was hit by a missile contacted the commission after being forced to vacate their hotel before receiving responses to their property-tax submissions. A pregnant woman evacuated from Petah Tikva with her family was required to leave her hotel before receiving basic equipment for an empty rental apartment, as her belongings remained trapped in her damaged home.
Perhaps most troubling were reports of discrimination in emergency shelters. Ethiopian community families in Jerusalem complained that members of an extremist Haredi Orthodox faction prevented them from entering shelters. One complainant reported that police intervention only helped temporarily before harassment resumed. The Comptroller's office worked with Jerusalem's mayor to locate alternative shelter arrangements and promote dialogue between police and community rabbis to address the discrimination.
The report also revealed that families of patients who died after being transferred to distant hospitals faced thousands of shekels in expenses to transport relatives for burial in their home cities. Only after commission intervention did the National Insurance Institute agree to cover these costs.
MK Gilad Kariv, chairman of the Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, stating that while he "boasts about the meticulous preparations for the operation in Iran that lasted months," the report proves "he has once again forgotten the citizens of Israel on the home front and abandoned them."
Englman's report called on the government to appoint a dedicated official to manage resident evacuations and establish a national information centre for emergency communications with citizens.
Israel launched preemptive strikes against Iranian nuclear sites in June, citing intelligence that Tehran had reached "a point of no return" in its pursuit of nuclear weapons. According to Israeli defence officials, Iran had developed the capacity to rapidly enrich uranium and assemble nuclear bombs, with sufficient fissile material for up to 15 weapons. Israeli intelligence also exposed a covert program to complete all components of a nuclear device.(ANI/TPS)