Newspaper: Hezbollah forces companies in northern Israel to close or move Economy

The industrial sector in northern Israel faces unprecedented challenges, exacerbated by large-scale fires that have further complicated the already deteriorating situation resulting from military tensions in the north with Lebanese Hezbollah.

The Israeli newspaper “Calcalist” said that the main industrial centers are increasingly moving to other regions, and the stability of the workforce in northern factories has become less than 50%.

The newspaper pointed to growing local discontent, and quoted local sources as saying, “We do not have any contacts with state bodies.”

The newspaper notes that a fire recently occurred near Kibbutz Amiad in northern Israel, causing severe damage to one of the four sites of the Kfar Giladi quarries.

The Kfar Giladi quarries, owned by the northern kibbutz, constitute a large part of its economic activity, employing about 170 workers directly, with a similar number of contract workers, according to the Calcalist newspaper.

The quarries supply products such as gravel, concrete, asphalt, and limestone powder used as raw materials in various industries, including fortifying the northern border, according to the same source.

The combination of hot and dry weather with Hezbollah’s repeated bombing and rocket attacks across large areas of the Galilee led to an increase in fires and aggravated the situation for residents of the north.

Calcalist confirms that industrial facilities in the region are suffering from a severe labor shortage, due to the massive evacuation of tens of thousands of residents in the first weeks of the Israeli war on Gaza from settlements near the border.

The newspaper says that in addition to the ongoing labor shortage, repeated missile launches from Lebanon regularly disrupt production lines in factories that are still operating under fire.

Calcalist reports that factories located in settlements near the border face a daily problem of workforce stability, and workers face a difficult dilemma between risking their lives by coming to dangerous places or risking their livelihoods.

It quoted company officials as fearing that factories owned by foreign companies would lose patience and move their operations to other places in the world, due to the ongoing security crisis in the north.

Among the companies that were forced to move their activities due to the confrontations in the north – according to Calcalist – is Elbit Systems, which owns two production sites in the settlements of Kiryat Shmona and Tel Hai.

Production at its communications systems factory in Tel Hai, which employs about 300 workers, was moved to alternative sites in the Sharon and central Israel regions several months ago, according to the newspaper.

Since the beginning of the war, Rafael has also been forced to move the activities it had maintained in a factory near Shlomi to a more rear area, due to the ongoing confrontations with the Lebanese Hezbollah.