Several cases of domestic violence, sexual offenses against women and minors, and truancy have been occurring at the hotels housing evacuees from the South and North, as was revealed Tuesday at a special Knesset Committee session on the Status of Women and Gender Equality.

The situation is due in large part to the complexity of housing the tens of thousands of evacuees.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, around 56,000 Israelis have been forced to flee their homes and live in hotels throughout the country. This has placed considerable stress on the evacuees, forced together with thousands of others for an indeterminate amount of time.

According to Shai Kahan, deputy head of the arm of the Prime Minister’s Office in charge of helping evacuees, the situation amounts to large sections of the population being held against their will and needing to compete for the resources that the hotels provide.

THE HOTEL lobby of the Yam Suf Hotel in Eilat serves as a gathering place late at night for members of the Kibbutz Nir Oz when they can’t sleep. (credit: JUDITH SUDILOVSKY)
THE HOTEL lobby of the Yam Suf Hotel in Eilat serves as a gathering place late at night for members of the Kibbutz Nir Oz when they can’t sleep. (credit: JUDITH SUDILOVSKY)

Violence in evacuation hotels running rampant

What’s worse, though, is that there have been several cases of violence in the hotels.Kahan noted cases where married couples were sent to the same hotel even if one partner had a restraining order against the other. Some evacuees have clashed with hotel management and some children are refusing to go to school.
“It is our responsibility to make sure that the government provides all the evacuees with the services that currently exist,” Kahan said. “If more services are needed, we know how to provide them.”Israel Police acknowledge that crimes are occurring at these hotels.
According to Israel Police representative Ch.-Supt. Merav Shatz, there so far dealt with a total of 116 separate cases, including “40 cases of domestic violence out of 380 hotels, including violating restraining orders, and some of these crimes are especially serious.”
Some specific examples were given by Maya Oberbaum from the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) based on complaints sent to them by victims of violence and sexual assault.
“One evacuee exposed himself and urinated in front of children,” she said. “Another person called and said she was raped by a man who was evacuated to the same hotel as her.”
She continued: “There are reports of sexual abuse in [the schools set up for evacuees] and we received a complaint about a security guard who harassed a girl.”
Testimony was also heard from Miri Frank, who helps Jerusalem hotels with the welfare of evacuees. She described a problem of young adults sexually assaulting younger girls. “A 23-year-old man was in a relationship with a 13-year-old girl, and her mother never knew at all because of all the chaos of the evacuation.”
Another case discussed was an eight-year-old boy who stripped a three-year-old girl naked.
“We are dealing with men in their 40s and 50s meeting younger women. The situation is very complex,” explained Liat Gal Cohen from the Center for Regional Government.
Yesh Atid MK Matti Sarfati Harkavi noted: “The level of reporting [of sexual offenses] during the war is going down. When the whole town evacuates to a single hotel, then these things often get handled internally. Every place hosting evacuees should have someone trained there.”
Yesh Atid MK Dvora Biton, who was also evacuated from her home in Sderot, described the situation in her hotel. “I witnessed 12-year-old children committing vandalism and drinking alcohol,” she said. “You can see scenes in elevators where a husband will tell his wife to shut up and you don’t know what goes on in their room... I see what’s happening. It’s a ticking time bomb.”
Committee chairperson MK Pnina Tamano-Shata (National Unity) urged government ministry representatives and the police to work harder to get comprehensive and complete data.
“You need to know the exact situation in each hotel,” she said. “If you don’t know how many complaints there are and where a climate of violence exists that must be addressed, then we won’t be able to move forward.”
She called on the police and representatives to meet again in two weeks, with comprehensive data.