Israel sets stricter standards for home bomb shelters

The Israeli Army Radio reported on Thursday that IDF Home Front intends to set new stricter construction standards for bomb shelters in private homes. The new standard is reportedly based on valuable lessons learned from the recent war, especially the intense military conflict between Iran and Israel in June. The new standard will apply to future constructions but will also enable upgrades to existing home bomb shelters. 

The new bomb shelter regulation will, among other things, require doors that clearly indicate when they are closed. New doors will therefore be equipped with red-and-green visual markings that indicate when the door is open and closed. 

A second new regulation calls for thickening bomb shelters’ internal walls. This upgrade came after Israeli authorities discovered in June that Iranian missiles caused more damage than expected on internal shelter walls. 

Iran fired some 550 ballistic missiles against the Jewish state during the 12-day war. Israel’s advanced multilayered aerial defense system successfully intercepted the vast majority of the incoming Iranian missiles. However, some Iranian projectiles succeeded in penetrating Israel’s aerial defenses and killed dozens of Israelis, mostly civilians. In addition, hundreds of Israelis were injured in the Iranian missile attacks, which were concentrated on the Tel Aviv and Haifa metropolitan areas where much of Israel’s population is concentrated. 

The new home bomb shelter standards are expected to address the various threats that Israel faces including ballistic missile attacks and cross-border terror assaults such as the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

A third key bomb shelter upgrade therefore includes strengthening shelter doors to withstand small arms fire from terrorists who succeed in entering the buildings as Hamas terrorists did in multiple Israeli Gaza border communities. 

The overall goal with the new bomb shelter regulation is to maximize the security of Israeli residents in the face of multiple complex security scenarios. The new shelter standard is reportedly scheduled to be implemented in 2026. 

Many older structures in Israel built before the 1990s still lack bomb shelters in apartments. However, all Israeli homes built since the early 1990s must according to Israeli law have a mamad, Hebrew for bomb shelter. This room is normally equipped with a heavy steel door, has thick concrete walls and sealed windows. 

In addition to killing and injuring Israeli civilians, Iranian missiles also displaced some 13,000 people in Israel who were mainly residing in older and less robust structures. 

The Israeli Home Front Command assessed after the war that the majority of the fatalities happened when Iranian missiles struck people before they succeeded in reaching the bomb shelter. 

In July, Amnesty International concluded that Iranian missile attacks on Israeli civilians violated international humanitarian law. 

“Cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons that must never be used,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns. 

“Iranian forces’ deliberate use of such inherently indiscriminate weapons is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” Rosas concluded.

In contrast, Israel mainly struck military installations in Iran and tried to avoid hitting civilian areas.