Half of Israel’s hotel rooms filled with Gaza war evacuees
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Survivors of the Hamas attack on southern Israel supporting one another after being evacuated to a hotel in Ein Bokek, Israel, on Oct 11.
PHOTO: REUTERS
JERUSALEM - Half of Israel’s hotel rooms are being used to house families evacuated from communities near the Gaza Strip, the head of the Israel Hotel Association said on Monday.
Israel has 56,000 hotel rooms and 28,000 are being provided to evacuees, with the state footing the bill, said association chief executive Yael Danieli.
She told a parliamentary panel debating compensation for residents impacted by the war that an additional 27,000 people from border towns near Lebanon are expected.
These citizens need meals and other welfare support from the state, Ms Danieli added.
The Israeli-Lebanon border has seen an increase in hostilities as the Gaza war rages.
The war was triggered by an Oct 7 rampage by Hamas gunmen
Foreign tourism has dried up
The Dan Hotel chain said its hotels in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Herzliya were being used for evacuees, while rival Isrotel said its hotels in the Red Sea resort of Eilat were housing displaced families.
Mr Yogev Gardos, Israel’s budget director, said the country’s initial response was to finance the military’s needs, and now it would turn to the economy as a whole.
“Within a few days we will give very sweeping grants to the entire economy, with an outline that will not provide full compensation for 100 per cent of the economic damage because the state cannot withstand this,” he told the parliamentary panel. REUTERS
