TEL AVIV (Dispatches) --
 Israeli settlers evacuated from the north battered by Hezbollah during the war are still refusing to return – citing a lack of security and fear of the Lebanese resistance, the Ynet news site reported. 
“I’m very worried. I left a home of 32 years and I can’t see a way back,” Rachel Biton, from the Avivim settlement in the upper Galilee, told the newspaper. “After October 7, I don’t want to live in fear anymore. We’re not naive,” she added. 
Her husband Rafi told the daily, “For a decade, we’ve been abandoned with technology like radars and cameras,” and that “Hezbollah disabled it all on the war’s first day, leaving us exposed.”
“Security means having the army inside, ensuring Hezbollah isn’t watching us anymore,” he said. He also lamented that the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, facing Avivim, will be rebuilt “a year from now.” 
The Israeli couple have been residing in a hotel since fleeing from Avivim at the start of the war.
Avivim was one of the settlements that were hit with heavy fire from the Lebanese resistance during the war that ended on November 27 after the signing of a ceasefire agreement, which was opposed by far-right officials and northern settlers alike. 
Missile, rocket, and drone attacks launched by Hezbollah from the start of the war until the announcement of the Lebanon ceasefire caused major destruction in many northern settlements – from which tens of thousands of settlers were forced to evacuate.
Most of these settlers are refusing to return to the north, despite the ceasefire in Lebanon and the evacuation period for Zionists being scheduled to officially end next month. 
The 60-day ceasefire implementation period was extended on Sunday night.
According to property tax data obtained by Ynet in late November, “a disturbing partial image emerges that indicates destruction and damage to approximately 9,000 buildings and over 7,000 vehicles that were damaged mainly by Hezbollah fire.” 
A large 2025 budget to rebuild damaged infrastructure in northern and southern settlements has been “frozen,” according to a senior finance ministry source cited by Yedioth Ahronoth on Tuesday. 
The source said the budget “will not be able to be used until the final approval of the government budget.”
It added that the failure to approve the 2025 budget is damaging the Zionist entity’s economy and that there are concerns that Israel will be forced to run on an interim budget. In this case, the budget for January, February, and March will be one-twelfth the original budget for the previous year.
“The finance ministry’s accountant general decided to allocate a smaller budget, fearing that there would be a need to finance additional months with an interim budget, and to create a reserve aimed at preventing disruption to the budgets of vital services for Israelis,” according to the report. 
The report added that it will not be possible to approve the budget before the end of March, citing the source as saying that this would be a “disaster.” 
The use of an interim budget will also damage security given the negative impact on the ability to recruit soldiers, strengthen the presence of troops, and enhance protection of the fringe settlements. 
Israeli settlements in both the north and south – including in the Gaza envelope – suffered significant destruction and damage as a result of the war that began after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023. 
During the operation and Israel’s implementation of the Hannibal Directive, settlements and Kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope were ravaged.