North’s Resilience Center Director: “Families Are Falling Apart Over Whether to Leave or Stay”

On October 7, Dalia Amos put her three children, now aged 24, 20 and 16, into the car and quickly left their home in Metula. They were sure they would be back after two days. It took them a year and a half. Amos, 52, the regional director of 38 resilience centers in the Galilee, has since continued to grapple with the difficult challenges of collapsing communities.

What is the role of the resilience centers? “The centers, which operate in 38 communities in northern Israel, provide professional support to about half a million residents who are under constant pressure. The centers have three roles, emergency preparedness and readiness, focused treatment for anxiety and trauma at the individual level, and community resilience and rehabilitation. Since October 7, our system has grown from about 50 employees to about 550 employees.”

Where does the funding come from? “The centers are funded by the Health Ministry and operated by Reshet Maatzivim, an organization founded by Prof. Mooli Lahad 45 years ago, which specializes in trauma and resilience and trains the teams.”

How do you strengthen a community that has been at war for more than 1,000 days? “It is a very difficult challenge, especially when there is no end in sight. One of the things we teach residents is to take initiative and find those places that allow them to regain control over their lives, because living in uncertainty for two and a half years is exhausting and draining.”

What are the main challenges facing northern residents today? “On the face of it, there is a ceasefire, we are not even defined as a war zone. But while the center of the country has returned to routine, here almost all systems are shut down. We are seeing many clinical symptoms, severe anxiety, avoidance of leaving the house or even leaving the safe room, children who are unwilling to move away from their parents. Families are falling apart over the dilemma of whether to leave or stay, families are unable to survive, children are getting lost because there have been no schools for two and a half years. There are entire communities here falling apart because some residents have returned and some have not.”

Are you trying to bring residents back in order to strengthen the communities? “The direct goal is not to bring the communities back home, but to strengthen the communities that are here. There is no judgment toward those who leave, I myself live half the time in Pedaya, and that is fine.”

How did the resilience centers under your management prepare for the evacuation after the October 7 massacre? “When we saw the evacuation in the south, we knew it would come, so we had time to prepare. The first evacuation was only on October 16, and until then we had set up an evacuation headquarters with 42 psychosocial coordinators, who joined the 60,000 evacuees on the buses, lived with the residents in hotels and provided an immediate response.”

Where did you and your family evacuate to? “At first to Kibbutz Gasharim, from there we moved to my sister’s in Netanya, and after a week we understood it would continue and rented an apartment in Netanya. I was busy with work from morning until night, but the children were cut off from their whole world. After a few months we realized that if we did not give them stable ground to hold them, they would get lost, and we moved to Pedaya. My eldest, Omer, was already in reserve duty, and in two weeks she is going out for a fourth round. The middle son, Idan, now a fighter in the commando unit, returned to the north to finish 12th grade. We rented him an apartment in Kibbutz Sde Eliezer and he lived there alone for half a year. The youngest, Amit, is a professional soccer player on the Galil-Golan team, and now she has been loaned to the Bnot Netanya team, so currently we live half the time in Metula and half in Pedaya.”

How did you get the role of director of the resilience centers in the Galilee? “I worked for about 16 years at the Golan Regional Council as a spokesperson, and when we established a resilience center in the council, we formed a connection with Reshet Maatzivim, which accompanied us and supported us. Resilience and emergency response are things that have always burned within me. Five years ago I started working there as director of the Eastern Galilee resilience center, and later I advanced to manage the entire network of resilience centers in the north.”

What gives you personal resilience? “A lot of self-belief in my abilities. I draw strength from my children, who find in every impossible situation the possibility of growing something good.”

What is the best advice you have received? “Great achievements are built from small successes.”

And the worst advice? “Only if you study will you succeed. There are other things that help people grow, besides studies.”