The leaders of the frontline communities in northern Israel made a unanimous decision Tuesday to refuse an invitation by Defense Minister Amir Peretz to attend an Independence Day reception.

In a message to the media, the leaders said that they are boycotting the event as an "expression of protest over the fact that the government abandoned the borderline communities during the Second Lebanon War."

During the meeting in Kiryat Shmona, the community leaders also decided to intensify their struggle against the government immediately after Independence Day, which falls on April 23-24.

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The leaders said that the condition of their communities is worse than it was before the war, and that they are not prepared for another war.

Maalot-Tarshiha Mayor Shlomo Buhbut, chairman of the forum of frontline communities, said Tuesday that "all the analysts are talking about another war in the summer, and we wake up each morning with dread.

"If we don't take severe steps today, and don't demand that the government prepare our bomb shelters for a prolonged stay, then, as I see it, we are not doing our job. In the event that there is a war in the summer and the shelters are inadequate, we will transfer the 1.5 million inhabitants of the north to the center of the country."