We are now 310 days into the Iron Swords War.  There are 115 hostages in captivity somewhere in Gaza that must be returned swiftly.

After 310 days of war, Israel still does not see an end to the hostilities. On the contrary, we are looking into the future and seeing an additional and immediate front looming before us. Or perhaps even more than one new front. We see the Lebanese border situation deteriorating imminently into a full-scale confrontation. At the moment, confrontation is limited (as much as a war can be called limited) to mutual bombardment, but we see it growing quickly into a full-scale war with border crossing of Israeli forces. We also see threats coming from near – Syria and far – Iraq, Yemen and of course Iran. We can also see an uprising in the West Bank, not because there is anything to gain from it, more because of “joining the party” and showing solidarity with their so called “brothers”. A distant yet potential threat is also possible from the Israeli Arabs, that although not politically correct as it is to talk about it, might turn into a threat in itself if Israel is weakened even more. Not a happy picture, yet it is somewhat an extreme one, I admit. 

Where is Leket’s place in this? Not much that we can do in terms of these powers at play, but we can prepare. We’ve built emergency programs, both internal and external. In these programs we detailed what we will do and to some extent who will do what. We cannot guarantee that we will have all the manpower at our disposal. Some of our staff will be in reserves; some will be home with family, and some will be afraid to venture out of the safe rooms at home or shelters. But a plan will always help define what we need, and it is better than no plan at all. 

Internal plan – we are preparing for a situation of blackout, no power and limited, if at all, communications.  We decided that in the case of no communication, those employees that can come to work will all convene at the Logistics Center and offices. We will then see what we have available and make decisions as to the priorities of the organization.

Our first priority is the safety of our employees and only after that is the delivery of food. If we deem it possible, we will hop on trucks and distribute as much food as we have according to an emergency delivery plan. As our cooling capacity may not be available at all we will endeavor to transport what we have in storage and if we can bring in fresh food – split it between direct distribution to our partner agencies and the Logistics Center, ensuring that what we bring in today will be sent the following day with no storage. We will also work with other agencies and organizations that require logistics and support them.

We plan to bring the generator from our Visitors’ Center, currently located in the fields in Rishon Lezion, to power what we can at the Logistics Center. Our office will be occupied if there is power and communications, otherwise we will have people working from the Logistics Center or home. 

External plan – our main focus will be on sourcing food. As we did after October 7^th, we will source any available food with a focus on nutritious food, but not only. 

Highlight of our emergency plan for the North:

Purchase 10,000 meals – Done. Already in revolving storage.  Frozen meals with a 2 year expiration date.  Immediate use, ready for delivery, currently in a Leket facility. 

Vouchers for immediate use – To be distributed jointly with local municipalities and Eshel Yerushalayim, a partner organization we work closely with.

Increased Produce Purchase – We’ve identified larger farmers we can purchase fresh produce from, and they are “in the know” that in case of escalation we will need to purchase larger quantities of produce. 

Call to Volunteer – Similar to Oct 7^th we will once again open our emergency response center and staff it with volunteers. We will also call on volunteers to support anything that can be done in the North.

Leket Express and Food Truck – Increased site visits and food delivery.

Eshel Yerushalayim – we’ve built a joint program with Eshel Yerushalayim to support 7 cities in the North. We already know the needs in case of escalation, and we will provide logistical  support and food together with Eshel. 

There are many more questions, most of which will remain unanswered until the moment of truth, but to have a plan to follow is giving us some comfort, that we know what to do when the crisis comes. Sadly, my opinion is that it cannot be avoided. 

We know what to do, we hope we don’t need to get there and we have good friends, such as yourself, that we know we can count on to support us.