6,473 Israeli residences were damaged sufficiently during the Iran war that those who had been living inside lost their homes, the IDF Home Front Command said on Thursday.
These numbers include only the worst property damage incidents, given that at the time of the April 7 ceasefire, Israelis had already filed over 28,000 property damage claims with the government (these could also include damage to cars and other property.)
In addition, the IDF said that on the home front, 683 Israelis had been wounded, including 22 seriously, 46 moderately, and 615 lightly – along with 24 killed as of the ceasefire.
Despite these numbers, over 7,500 Israelis were hospitalized during the conflict, indicating that the IDF Home Front is only counting wounds of a certain level, even for its “lightly” wounded definition.
Home Front Command called up 45 battalions
At its height, the IDF Home Front Command called up around 45 battalions, adding up to around 25,000 soldiers, or 84% of its maximum call-up capacity, including reservists.
Normally, the home front command may be using as few as around 10 battalions.
After two weeks of the war, and feeling that it had a handle on how problematic the home front damage was, the IDF reduced its call-up to around 17 battalions for the home front.
The IDF Home Front stated that its rescue or engineering staff arrived at around 1,200 locations which were damaged by Iranian attacks (many sites had minor damage from shrapnel from exploded pieces of ballistic missiles or smaller cluster munition bomblets.)
Moreover, it said that its rescue or engineering staff arrived at around 100 locations that were damaged by Hezbollah attacks.
At the height of the war, the IDF Home Front Command had 40 rescue battalions, four Yaarah battalions, and two battalions for handling potential weapons of mass destruction issues.
There were 25 major destruction areas during the war, a much higher number than previously noted by IDF officials, and at least 23 cases in which the home front said its staff concretely saved lives by extricating or administering medical care to endangered or wounded civilians on scene.
Next, the IDF home front said that it has appointed a new position of a senior permanent on-call official at the rank of colonel.
