The population of Israeli villages along the southern border has grown by 3,000 residents since Oct. 7, 2023, even as five communities are still waiting to return home, a Knesset committee was told on Monday.

Aviad Friedman, head of the Tekuma Authority that is responsible for rebuilding the Gaza border towns destroyed in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, described the population growth as “an exciting Zionist event” during a hearing at the Knesset State Control Committee.

“The number of residents in the region has grown from some 62,000 on the eve of Oct. 7 to about 65,000 today,” the official told lawmakers, adding: “The region remains heterogeneous and diverse, and the communities are the ones that determine their own path.”

He noted that 42 out of the Gaza Envelope’s 47 communities have returned, 28 months after the region was evacuated by the Israel Defense Forces on the first day of the war with Hamas in Gaza.

By the end of 2027, the remaining five communities, totaling up to 3,000 residents, are expected to return home, Friedman told the committee.

Holit and Kissufim are expected to return by July 1st. In Kfar Aza and Be’eri, Jerusalem hopes to begin the return process next year, with residents of Nir Oz expected to return later in 2027, he stated.

State Control Committee Chairman MK Alon Schuster, a lawmaker for the opposition Blue and White Party and a former mayor of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council in the south, praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for creating the Tekuma Authority during the war.

“The Tekuma Authority has been an exceptional event in the history of Israeli governance,” Schuster said. “This has been an extraordinary and centralized effort, with important decisions and close oversight by government ministries and the Knesset.”

The Tkuma Directorate was established on Oct. 19, 2023, under the Prime Minister’s Office, to lead government efforts to revive the Gaza Envelope and Israel’s northern region that were devastated by the war.

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