The Reservists Party on Sunday launched its headquarters in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, saying it would directly support residents under attack from Hezbollah after a lack of sufficient government response.
The northern city and surrounding communities bordering Lebanon have remained under ongoing rocket fire from Hezbollah, despite the ceasefire with Iran that began last week.
“The Reservists are once again [available] where the state disappears,” party leader and former communications minister Yoaz Hendel said at the opening of the new headquarters.
He criticized the government for not doing enough to aid the North while it was under attack, and called on ministers to take action.
“If government ministers do not understand how significant this place is, we will be here in their stead. During the week, on weekends, and on holidays. This is the decisive front in the battle for public consciousness in this war,” Hendel said.
“Government ministers, this is a call to you: Follow our lead. Move your offices here. Opposition leaders, come here, set up headquarters, be present, stay here.”
“This is our test. All parties that seek to lead Israel must show up here.”
Hendel’s party comprises reserve soldiers, their families, wounded IDF veterans, bereaved families, and civilian volunteers. It was established in September 2025, ahead of the upcoming elections scheduled to take place no later than October.
The party positions itself as a response to the leadership vacuum that followed the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and calls for universal conscription.
The new headquarters is said to now serve as a hub for civic and political activity in the city and will operate an assistance command center for residents of northern Israel.
Activities the party says it will initiate include meetings with local residents, support for those who remained in the city, and briefings. Party members are expected to maintain a continuous presence at the site.
Hendel said that if other politicians and ministers were to be located in the North as well, proper budgets would be directed to the area. This would also draw further media coverage, bringing more journalists to the area.
The party leader also said that rather than halting the IDF’s military action in Lebanon, the Reservists were coming to help those under attack in Kiryat Shmona so that the IDF could continue fighting.
“We are going against the current. We are renting an apartment here [in Kiryat Shmona], expressing confidence in a city from which more than half the residents have left. Many of them do not intend to return.”
“We are coming to help where needed, with a continuous presence of party members.”
Hendel noted that most members of the Reservists Party were still currently serving in reserve in Lebanon and Gaza.
Shlomi Damari, one of the party’s leaders, said he had just completed a round of reserve duty in Lebanon last week.
“We know the price paid by residents and the price paid by the soldiers,” he said.
“Opening the headquarters in Kiryat Shmona is a clear statement: Those who serve the country will also lead it,” he added.
Kiryat Shmona mayor warns of city's neglect
The headquarters’ opening event was attended by Hendel and party members, who then met with heads of local northern authorities. Among them was Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern, who has sharply criticized the government’s conduct toward the North during the war, saying last month that it failed to aid the city.
Stern had warned that Kiryat Shmona was being neglected by the state and that he felt the government had been working against him.
He said that he wakes up every morning feeling that “the State of Israel is fighting me – not Iran, not Lebanon, not the enemies – me.”
He warned that the city was “simply disappearing.”
“Today, about 10,000 residents remain. If this continues for another month, there will be 10 left, only those who cannot leave,” he said.
Stern also said that not enough government funding had reached the city.
Communities along the northern border were already severely affected following the October 7 massacre and throughout the ensuing war.
During that period, hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to leave their homes as the area came under sustained rocket fire. The area had not recovered from that earlier damage when Operation Roaring Lion began in February.