Assistance to Katsrin for emergency preparedness in the "Iron Swords" war

The Katzrin local council in cooperation with the "Tamir for social leadership" association On October 7, 2023, a murderous terrorist attack was launched from the Gaza Strip, including an invasion of Israeli territory. A few days after the terrorist attack from the south, another front opened from the north, with acts of warfare carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organization and other organizations in Lebanon. In addition to the attacks from the south and north, the State of Iran, through its proxies from Syria, Iraq and Yemen, is advancing tens of thousands of terrorists to central and southern Syria who are waiting at the border of the Golan Heights in preparation for the go-ahead order to fire missiles and UAVs at Israel, and even invade it, as soon as the order is given. The communities of the Golan Heights in general and Katzrin in particular, which are subject to missile threats and terrorist infiltrations, stand firm, as human shields, on the northeastern border of the country. Unlike the communities at the confrontation line on the border with Lebanon that were evacuated by the government at the beginning of the war, the communities in the Golan Heights, including Katzrin, which has about 10,000 residents, were not evacuated and are not planning to evacuate, but will rather, literally, guard their homes! But we need help to prepare for it. Katzrin and the Golan Heights experience missile and UAV attacks every week, and since the beginning of the war, dozens of missiles and UAVs have been intercepted in the Katzrin area. A number of missiles landed inside Katzrin's territory, near residents' homes, miraculously injuring only two people when a missile hit the house directly. These missiles have caused massive fires in vast areas around Katzrin. Fire crews confronted with the task, have regularly managed to stop the fires right next to the homes of residents and educational institutions in the city with assistance from the local on-call security alert squad and other volunteers. Based on various assessments of the situation conducted with the security forces, we are facing several extreme scenarios - electricity and water supply cuts lasting several days, terrorist infiltrations, as well as thousands of missiles being fired at us from the north and east until such time as the Golan Heights is cut off, without possibility of entering or going out of the Golan Heights, including an inability to evacuate the hundreds of wounded to area hospitals. We, in the Katzrin Local Authority, are working night and day, non-stop, to ready the community for an all-out war in the north and to prime it for functional independence in an emergency. A great deal of work is being done to intensify the preparedness of all the responsible bodies in the city for the extreme possibility of hundreds of casualties or more. The Council employees and elected officials are working tirelessly to reduce the gaps in emergency measures created by security assessments and new scenarios. We have prepared lists of essentials critical to emergencies. We have assembled groups of volunteers and the on-call security alert squad in addition to the various medical and relief personnel have been practicing constantly and continuously – but unfortunately many of the gaps cannot be bridged without the required financial budget that we currently lack in the Council's coffers. The main gaps we have left: 2. Establishment of a life-saving medical center – one of the scenarios we are preparing for is the inability to evacuate the wounded due to the disconnection of routes to the Golan. We are, therefore, working to establish a medical center that will have the knowhow to treat the many wounded. We have the necessary space, we have been donated 30 hospital beds from Rambam Hospital, but we still need appropriate medical equipment and apparatus, refurbishment of the building and more. 4. Rubble removal – The local on-call security alert squad is prepared for the various scenarios but lacks a lot of equipment, without which it will be difficult to accomplish the various missions. 6. Protection – We lack mobile shelters for old buildings and central population areas. 2. Fire extinguishing – as I mentioned above, we are dealing with huge fires that are ignited as a result of the missiles. The fire brigade cannot handle the workload, so we trained the soldiers of the alert squad and other volunteers to extinguish the fires. They do a wonderful job, but do so without proper or even protective equipment. 4. Caring for fatalities – We trained a team of volunteers to deal with casualties in the devastated areas, but unfortunately, we lack the appropriate equipment for the task. 6. Building an emergency warehouse – we received a government budget for the construction of an emergency warehouse but it only covers 50% of the construction costs and we need to make up the balance. It is important to note that we have detailed plans and equipment lists for implementation and we have received quotes from various suppliers in Israel who are just waiting for the orders to be placed. The only element missing is the required financial budget. Once we raise it, we will be able to bridge many of the gaps within two weeks. In view of the above, we are currently working to prepare Katzrin for full independence during a state of emergency and ask for your help. Therefore, I appeal to you to assist us in this very important and life-saving mission and to prepare Katzrin for a full war on the northern front.