Northern border vigilance teams to be demobilized next week after ceasefire announcement

Following the American announcement of a ceasefire in the north, residents in Israeli communities along the confrontation line were told on Monday that the local emergency squads will be released starting next Sunday. The notice says the “defense platoons” mission is ending, meaning the people mobilized when Operation “Roar of the Lion” began will be sent home.

Moran Dadush, a member of the emergency squad in Moshav Goren in the Western Galilee, sharply criticized the move. He said the northern region is being “abandoned” and called the message “a spit in the face of everyone who has protected the home over the past three years.” According to him, the squads were informed, “From Sunday, all of you are released,” in what he described as a cold message, “as if this were closing a hobby club and not defending an entire region.”

Dadush added that the ceasefire agreements are not yet proven on the ground and that the area remains tense despite the announcement. He argued that the first decision after the ceasefire was to dismantle what he described as the communities’ last line of defense. He warned that families cannot feel safe if there is no one left to respond first in the event of an incident.

He concluded that releasing the emergency squads immediately, without a transition period and without verified security in the field, is not a return to normal life but “abandonment.”