In the Second Lebanon War (July 2006), the Hezbollah attacked the civilian population of Israel. The war lasted 34 days and more than 4,000 rockets were fired on the north of the country. The Home Front Command called on the population residing in the north to spend lengthy periods in protected shelters. Throughout the war, the government did not debate the necessity for the evacuation of residents from the area under fire, with a population of about one million. In practice, about 300,000 people evacuated the area, most of them independently or with the assistance of voluntary organizations (NGOs). This paper describes the evacuation behavior during the war, the government's policy in regard to this issue, and proposes generic criteria according to which the necessity for evacuation may be assessed under similar circumstances in the future.