Tel-Hai Magazine 2023-2024

the participants were asked to answer a shortened version of the Depres sion-Anxiety-Stress Scale-21 (DASS21) 4 , regarding only the anxiety and stress lev els (excluding depression). To determine levels of coping, the Sit uational Brief COPE 5 was used—a short 28-item self-report questionnaire that enables rapid measurement of coping responses. COPE stands for ‘Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced,’ and it measures 14 identified coping re sponses that assess levels of coping with an experience. The Multidimensional Scale of Per ceived Social Support (MSPSS) (Zimet et al., 1988) questionnaire was utilized to assess the social support of evacuated adults. The questionnaire contains three subscales, with each subscale emphasiz ing a different source of support: family, friends, and others. Findings The descriptive research findings showed that most evacuees left of their own ac cord without waiting for instructions from the Homefront Command or an official evacuation order. Despite living in settlements adjacent to the border fence, most were not familiar with an or ganized evacuation plan and made an independent decision to leave their homes with their nuclear family in the first days after the massacre, settling with relatives or friends in safer locations. In previous conflicts, most of the evacuees reported that they had not even consid ered evacuating, but the events of the October 7th massacre in southern Israel changed this decision. When examining the evacuees’ report ed evacuation experience, findings showed that a more difficult evacuation experience was related to higher levels of stress and anxiety, and surprisingly, high er levels of coping. The findings revealed an interesting difference between the evacuees of southern Israel and those of northern Israel. For evacuees from the south, higher difficulty levels surround ing the evacuation experience directly

predicted higher levels of coping. How ever, for the evacuees from the north, higher coping levels were predicted indi rectly by higher levels of anxiety and stress. For all evacuees, higher levels of stress and anxiety, regardless of their overall evacuation experience, showed higher levels of coping. Interestingly, a more challenging evacuation experience predicted a decrease in seeking social support for both groups. Discussion and conclusions In order to understand the difference found between the southern and north ern evacuees, we looked to studies con ducted in northern Israel after the Sec ond Lebanon War in 2006 6 . These studies showed that 61% of residents adjacent to the northern border during the conflict decided not to evacuate from their homes despite the security threat but rather to rely on protective measures (i.e. bomb shelters) in their homes, main ly due to financial reasons and the diffi culty inherent in leaving one’s home and routine 7 . Citizens belonging to minority groups (for example, Arabs) were less in clined to evacuate, either independently or in an organized manner, compared to people from the majority Jewish sector 8 . In the current conflict, most of the resi dents, including Arab residents, did choose to evacuate from their homes. The expla

nation for this probably lies in the cross-border infiltration and massacre that took place in the south of the country, in creasing worry that the threat was not lim ited to the familiar threat of missiles but also to an actual threat of infiltration and massacre in their homes. This coincides with findings from Israel’s Homefront Command, stating that 20% - 30% of ci vilians who perceive a security threat as clear and present danger, will choose to evacuate on their own accord 9 . Further findings strengthened the no tion that the experience of being evacu ated from one’s home is challenging and complex. Our study reinforced that evac uation from home due to war is, first and foremost a personal survival effort in which each person mobilizes their capa bilities to deal with their own needs and the needs of their loved ones 10 . Our re search found that the ordeal not only significantly increased the levels of anxi ety and stress but also mobilized the evacuees to cope with their prolonged evacuation. It seems that the populations studied from the two different areas of the coun try had undergone different experiences prior to the evacuation and that this de termined whether the evacuation expe rience predicated levels of coping direct ly or indirectly. For the residents of the

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