Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Alon Schuster said bolstering housing near the Lebanese border will form a “critical issue in the home front and the civilian resilience in the next conflict.”

Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Alon Schuster met with the heads of local councils in the country’s north and provided details about plans to install rocket-proof protection in homes near the Lebanon border.

The initiative came after rocket attacks launched by Hezbollah terrorists from southern Lebanon last week threatened towns in northern Israel.

Under the Defense Ministry’s plan, dubbed “Defender of the North,” work will begin next month in eight communities located up to one kilometer from the border to fortify homes.

Schuster was accompanied at the meeting by the head of the Shielding Department in the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command, Col. Yaniv Wolfer, and visited a number of locations in the Upper Galilee, including Moshav Yuval, where the first homes will receive the added protection.

The program will be led by the Defense Ministry and the IDF Home Front Command. It will receive 250 million shekels ($77.5 million) of funding for 2021-22 and 500 million shekels ($155 million) from the 2023 defense budget.

Schuster said as a result of “the conclusion and approval of the defense budget under the leadership of Defense Minister Benny Gantz, we are ensuring the implementation of the ‘Defender of the North’ program.” The program was approved by the political-security cabinet in 2018.

Schuster added that bolstering homes in the north will form a “critical issue in the home front and the civilian resilience in the next conflict.”

(World Israel News).