At the entrance to the Royal, there is a semblance of order. Members of an IDF orchestra, who came to entertain the evacuees, disembark from a bus in their olive-green uniforms. Scouts in white shirts sit playing chess with evacuees or wander the lobby. Hotel employees scan the grounds for litter. Volunteers sporting visibility vests offer psychological support. At the check-in desk are two signs in neat handwriting — one in Russian, one in Hebrew — detailing a daily schedule of activities. All the major health funds have signs advertising services and contact information.
Women carrying clipboards walk with purpose through the throng of people congregated in the lobby. The hotel is clean and the air conditioner keeps the interior cool in the hot Dead Sea weather. But for Ruth Cohen, the Royal’s CEO, the situation is far from under control. “Only today after more than three weeks did we receive money from the Sderot municipality,” said Cohen on Tuesday. “But that payment only covers the rooms.” “Space was allocated here to open classrooms for preschool, special education and elementary school children in all the Dead Sea hotels,” she explained. “Nineteen different event spaces, meeting rooms and conference rooms are being used from the morning until midnight or even later with air conditioners running full blast. Who is supposed to pay the electric bill?”
Cohen added that she has lost 80 percent of her employees because they are either Palestinians under curfew or Ukrainians and Argentinians who left the country when war broke out. Adding to the confusion and frustration for some residents of Gaza border communities is a government decision that settlements, kibbutzim, towns or cities located more than seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from Gaza’s border are not eligible for a variety of benefits, including a state-funded hotel stay. At the same time, those within four kilometers are eligible for certain advance payments. All of Sderot is considered to be located 2.79 kilometers from the border, well within both limits, according to a chart provided online by the Welfare and Social Services Ministry. The government has allocated an initial NIS 1 billion ($245 million) to the directorate for the rehabilitation of Gaza border communities, created in the wake of the Hamas attack and headed by former IDF Brig. Gen. Moshe Edri.
In the first phase of a three-phase plan, the directorate was supposed to begin directing funds to local regional councils and municipalities, including Shaar Hanegev, Sdot Negev, Eshkol and the city of Sderot. The Finance Ministry announced on October 26 that NIS 2 million ($490,000) has already been allotted to each of the regional councils and municipalities for urgent needs. Some of the hardest-hit communities have received more. But none of that money has made its way to the Royal Hotel.
