Published: 10 March 2026
Last updated: 11 March 2026
The low number of casualties in Israel relative to Iran or Gaza means Israel is perceived from the outside as almost bullet proof, protected by the iron dome and a network of shelters and safe rooms.
But many Israelis are in fact unprotected and even those who are have no guarantees: two of the nine people killed in the direct hit in Beit Shemesh last week were in a public shelter at the time.
One in three Israelis does not have access to adequate shelter, according to Israel’s State Comptroller and Ombudsman.
Those on the geographical and social periphery are least likely to have suitable shelter: 50% of non-Jewish Israelis do not have access to a shelter.
In the past year the government funded 1500 new shelters, but The Association for Civil Rights in Israel(ACRI) found these were primarily placed in the central Gush Dan area, which are the nearly exclusively Jewish cities of Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Petah Tikva, Herzliya, Givatyim and Bat Yam.
Not all shelters are equal
As of data from January 2025 by the Home Front Command, the protection of Israeli residents in a war is the following:
- 46% - Mamad (Private safe room) or Mamak (internal protected space in a multi-story building
- 16% - Miklat (communal shelter) on the ground floor or in the basement of a building
- 5% - Public shelter built in a residential area
- 33% - No protected space
Comments1
Mark Ian15 March at 01:56 am
It is a disgrace and over the next Decade Deep Underground Shelters like in Eastern Europe and Switzerland are needed .
This is though passive type Defense and Deterrence with Ballistic Missiles and hundreds of thousands of Drones are for the Party of War .
The Party of Peace would offer an International Interim Palestine Trusteeship backed by Armed Troops in the majority of the West Bank but all Jihadi would have to be crushed as well as the hilltop settler psychopaths .