The Sunday night truck explosion in Tel Aviv is yet another chilling reminder that it isn’t just the North and South that are in danger of terrorist attacks.
The explosion, which was an attempted terrorist attack that Hamas took credit for, could very easily have blown up near a synagogue or mall. The fact that it didn’t is, as Israel Police official Haim Bobalil said, “a miracle.”
The fact that Hamas claimed responsibility is a sign that the densely-populated cities of Israel’s center are not out of its reach – something Hamas has proven before with rockets fired throughout the war, and after the Houthis of Yemen managed to hit Tel Aviv in July.
Hezbollah is aware of this too, threatening in recent days to attack as far as Tel Aviv soon. And the looming threat of a massive strike by Iran and its allies still hovers over the millions of Israelis who live in the center.
The IDF has stressed that they are at peak readiness amid all these threats. But the same cannot be said for the individual localities throughout the country, especially in the center and Jerusalem.
The key issues here are bomb shelters and safe rooms. Many older buildings lack safe rooms at all, and many other buildings only have stairwells. For many residents, this leaves public bomb shelters as the only option, and while plenty are scattered throughout the city, there are also plenty of issues and gaps.
For example, according to local reports, residents near the Jaffa flea market have struggled to access the only available public bomb shelter, as the entrance to it was taken over by a local business that uses it as an electronics warehouse.
Lack of shelters
Another issue is the lack of public bomb shelters available in Tel Aviv’s southeast neighborhoods, about which residents have long complained.
Outside Tel Aviv, the situation isn’t much better. For example, in Holon, the municipality’s website listed 69 available public bomb shelters. An investigation by Mynet Holon, however, found that 16% of them are in poor condition and are not authorized for use as emergency shelters by the Fire and Rescue Authority or Home Front Command. In addition, several of the bomb shelters are being utilized for other purposes, serving as synagogues or classrooms.
Arguably nowhere is this problem worse than in Jerusalem. As The Jerusalem Post reported shortly after the last Iran missile and drone assault on the Jewish state, figures show that nearly half (48%) of all Jerusalemites lack a bomb shelter at home.
Further, the over 200 public bomb shelters in the city aren’t distributed evenly, with practically none being in east Jerusalem, including Jerusalem’s two biggest neighborhoods of Ramot and Pisgat Ze’ev. The bomb shelters that do exist in the city aren’t always usable; some of them are locked or poorly maintained.
The bomb shelter crisis in Israel is nothing new, and officials have been raising alarms about it for years. Regarding Holon, for example, a municipal audit in 2017 reportedly found that the city had been poorly managing the local public bomb shelters.
This is made worse by Israel’s shortage of firefighters. A recent report by the independent investigative news outlet Shomrim found that despite the North and South being consumed by fires caused by rockets, missiles, and drones, Israel is still short hundreds of firefighters and stations, and is struggling to keep up with the numerous blazes.
The state of Israel’s readiness is unacceptable. Even if the IDF is fully prepared to retaliate against Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran, it doesn’t mean civilians will be safe if they have no safe rooms to which they can run and no fire and rescue personnel who can respond to crises.
On Sunday, Dan Ronen, the former director-general of the now-closed Home Front Defense Ministry, told the unofficial civilian October 7 probe that Israel is not prepared for a massive barrage of missiles from all fronts.
He’s right. This is an issue that has pervaded all Israeli governments and municipal leadership regardless of political leaning, and it is a problem that cannot continue.
The government and local authorities need to take action. We can’t count on another miracle to happen.