Nearly three months after the October 7 massacre, the National Insurance Institute (NII) has paid more than NIS 650 million to 45,000 victims, families of abductees, missing persons, surviving residents near the Gaza Strip, and Nova music festival survivors – not including security forces handled by the Defense Ministry.
Yarona Shalom, acting director-general of the NII, said in a briefing that because there is, as of yet, no compensation law for national disasters, the NII will begin to treat the victims of the war according to the damage suffered by people and the treatment they need from now on and throughout their lifetimes. “The disaster that befell Israel is more than a terrorist incident; it is a war of the home front in many ways,” she declared.
Since the Meron disaster nearly three years ago killed 45 people, no law was passed by the Knesset on the matter, despite NII urging. Instead, the institute assisted within the framework of the law on compensation for victims of hostilities.
About 6,000 people have contacted the emergency center for war victims every week, and there are about 25 thousand online inquiries through the NII website. Victims also received housing allowances, unemployment benefits for those sent on leave without pay, payments to IDF reservists, and ongoing work such as providing retirement payments, nursing care, income assurance, bankruptcies, and more.
NII found that there were people who took advantage of the situation and applied for benefits even though they were not entitled to them. But beyond the call for basic fairness at this time, NII has the tools to deal with this. A conscious decision was made, with the understanding that we are talking about only a small number of such cases, so that the tens of thousands of victims who were present at the disaster could be helped.
Shalom said that the NII made efforts to cut red tape during the last few months, including obtaining data from the hospitals, creating shortened forms, and improving computerization. “We turned every stone to reach those who suffered the worst of all and proactively turned to local council heads and mayors, and went to the hotels housing those who lost or left their homes.
The NII has produced a booklet of rights for the victims that will be sent to all the tens of thousands of citizens who were, and staffers will go to the hotels to explain their rights.