TOI ARTICLE ON HOW MAGEN 48 IS STEPPING UP COMMUNITY DEFENSE

FULL ARTICLE BELOW “We’ve done over 250 training sessions with 2,000 people. … They are at least four times better trained than they were before.”

“We are not going back to October 6, 2023.”

In a new The Times of Israel feature on changes to Gaza border defense funding, Magen 48 is highlighted for stepping up — training civilians to protect their communities and restore security across Israel’s south.

Two years later, Israelis aren’t waiting for someone else to protect them.

They’re training, standing guard, and rebuilding — together.

This is resilience in action.

IDF to cut budget for salaries of Gaza border civil defense squads

With so many first-responders back at work, IDF says full-time pay no longer needed; new-look monthly training for 67 security teams progressing

By Sue Surkes Follow

6 October 2025, 7:07 pm

The Israel Defense Forces has notified civilian Gaza border civil defense squads that it would reduce budgets for their salaries for a second time since the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023, in light of an “operational situation assessment.”

The cuts would be implemented after the Jewish holiday season, which ends in mid-October.

Civilian first-response teams are made up of volunteers, often men in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns.

The Israel Defense Forces has notified civilian Gaza border civil defense squads that it would reduce budgets for their salaries for a second time since the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023, in light of an “operational situation assessment.”

The cuts would be implemented after the Jewish holiday season, which ends in mid-October.

Civilian first-response teams are made up of volunteers, often men in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns.

Security teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.

Immediately after the Hamas massacre, which saw 1,200 mainly civilians murdered (including 46 first response volunteers) and 251 abducted to the Gaza Strip, surviving team members returned to help defend their villages as reserve soldiers on full pay. About a year ago, by which time many of the civil defense squad members had returned to their civilian jobs, the security team budget for each community was reduced by around five percent. This time, it will decrease by 10-20%, according to an IDF spokeswoman.

She emphasized that the number of people in each first-response team would remain the same, as would their weapons and equipment. The only change is the number of civil defense squad members in active reserve duty. The civilian security coordinator in each location would determine how to allocate the reduced budget to ensure that members on active reserve duty, such as those undergoing training, were paid. In cases where there were not enough volunteers from the community, he was free to add and pay for reserve soldiers from elsewhere. The number of men in a first response team depends on factors such as the distance from the Gaza border and the size of the community. While the minimum is 24 members, the city of Sderot has 100. Kibbutz Yad Mordechai has been allocated 40 places, as it has a school that also needs protection.

New-look training for 67 Gaza border teams

An upgraded, professionalized course of training for these teams is meanwhile successfully progressing, according to Ari Briggs, an immigrant from Australia who, with counterterrorism expert Ehud Dribben, is working with teams from 67 communities in the Gaza border region.

The teams attend one day of training per month for a year. Eight of those sessions count toward the participants’ military reserve duty and are funded by the IDF, while the remaining four days are paid for by the private NGO Magen Yehuda and its program, Magen 48. Until the October 7 massacre, the IDF provided men like these with two yearly sessions of limited training, usually at a shooting range.

When Hamas invaded, the army was initially overwhelmed. Defense fell largely on the shoulders of these first response teams, 46 of whose members were killed in the line of duty.

None of the teams had been trained in the use of pistols. Some lacked assault rifles or were unable to access locked armories. According to a series of IDF post-October 7 probes, the training of these teams was not standardized, and coordination between them, the army, and other organizations was often poor.

In August 2022, following a series of break-ins and gun thefts, the army instructed all Gaza border security teams to return their assault rifles. It conditioned their return on the installation of safe storage places, either at home or in local armories. The decision left many unable to defend themselves against the massive waves of well-armed invading terrorists.

In Be’eri, the two security members with keys to the armory were killed before they could open it, and in Nahal Oz, the armory remained locked when power went out, and the only man with a key for manual use was killed.

That has now changed, Briggs confirmed. The security teams keep their weapons and equipment at home, ready in case of need. And their training has been totally upgraded, thanks to Dribben’s work with the IDF, Briggs said.

“We are not going back to October 6, 2023,” Briggs went on, adding that full, high-quality teams had been recruited in all but the five kibbutzim worst affected by October 7, who are still in temporary accommodation. All 67 communities (Moshav Mavki’im was recently added to the initial 66) were on their fourth training session, with some already doing the fifth.

“We’ve done over 250 training sessions with 2,000 people.

It’s chalk and cheese in terms of the capability for these teams. They are at least four times better trained than they were before.”

Some of the training will be devoted to emergency medical treatment, thanks to a linkup with Dr Debra West, an Australian-trained physician and former director of emergency services at Assuta Hospital in southern Ashdod.

“She has developed the ‘golden five minutes’ to save someone’s life,” Briggs said.

In a further development, Dribben has converted an old chicken coop into a large demonstration “home” to train teams on how to deal with potential hostage or terrorist situations inside houses.

A further eight training sessions are planned for the second year, with an annual six after that.

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