Last week, Shomrim reported on the Thai nationals who had been working the fields belonging to the Israeli communities adjacent to the border with the Gaza Strip and fell victim to the Hamas attack of October 7. In total, 18 Thai nationals were murdered and 11 are being held hostage in Gaza. Many of the Thai workers who remained in Israel are now back in their own country or are on the way home. Those that stayed behind moved to the Sharon region, to Emek Hefer and to communities in the Arava. For years, these workers worked for hours every day in the fields adjacent to the Gaza border. Despite being constantly exposed to the threat of Hamas rocket fire – and notwithstanding several government decisions on the matter – these workers did not have proper protection. According to the website of the Prime Minister's Office, for example, a decision made in August 2020 to transfer 3 million shekels to the Agriculture Ministry, which was supposed to purchase portable concrete bomb shelters, has yet to be implemented.

This is just one relatively small example of the way that the State of Israel has failed to build secure spaces to protect its citizens from rockets fired from the north and the south, even though this has been the main threat to the security of Israelis for more than two decades. Sometimes this is because of budgetary considerations and sometimes it is just a case of government decisions not being implemented. It might also be because of the belief that the Iron Dome missile defense system is a satisfactory solution to the rocket threat – in the same way as the perimeter fence around the Gaza Strip was supposed to protect the adjacent Israeli communities.

Either way, the bottom line is clear: Israel has yet to complete the protection of civilians on the home front. The problem is nationwide. Some 2.5 million Israelis – 28 percent of the population – have no access to safe spaces during missile attacks. In the south,  around 80,000 people living within 20 kilometers of the Gaza Strip have no safe space. In the north, 150,000 Israelis who live a similar distance from the Lebanon border have nowhere to go when the missiles start falling. Notwithstanding a 2020 State Comptroller report that warned the government about the problem, nothing has changed since then.

Two years before that, in 2018, the diplomatic-security cabinet approved Resolution 302, which laid out plans for upgrading protected spaces across the country by 2030. When the project was launched, the goal was for the government to allocate 500 million shekels ($125 million) a year to add extra reinforcements to residential buildings, especially in the north, and the government even launched a special project it called ‘Northern Shield.’ It is important to note that this was not part of the defense budget. Rather, the government was supposed to pre-approve the allocation every 12 or 24 months – something that was not ideal for the army since there was no guarantee that the funding would be forthcoming. During the period when Israel held three general elections, for example, there was no state budget and this project was one of those to pay the price.

At a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in May 2021, it became apparent that there were problems implementing the plan. The head of the Home Front Command at the time, Brig.-Gen. Itzik Bar, told the committee that it would cost 1.6 billion shekels ($400 million) to provide adequate protection to residents living within 9 kilometers of the northern border. Providing the same level of protection for everyone within 45 kilometers of the border would cost a lot more, he added – around 28 billion shekels ($7 billion). Bar told lawmakers that the state would only provide full protection for those communities directly adjacent to the border; for those communities further away, the state would act as a kind of regulator, overseeing the local and civilian authorities that are responsible for augmenting protection.“These are the gaps that currently exist within the ‘Northern Shield’ project,” Bat said. “Firstly the need to make up the gaps in protection for distances up to 9 kilometers from the border. That range is, in fact, the region where the Northern Command operates, it is a region that is under threat from the various factors that we are aware of.”

Some of the Knesset members who attended that meeting expressed concern that the project would be underfunded in the future. Orna Barbivai (Yesh Atid) asked the Finance Ministry representative at the meeting, Jonathan Florsheim, for clarification as to whether the funding for the upcoming years was not guaranteed. Florsheim’s answer was that “there is a gap between when funds are allocated and when they arrive … For the protection in the north, the budget was allocated in 2019 and, in practice, the funding and work are due to happen during 2021 and 2022, because there are tenders requred for building protected rooms and infrastructure work. Thus far, 640 million shekels have been allocated. As for the future, you are correct in what you said.” 

It seems that exactly what Barbivai was afraid of came to pass. In 2023, the state tried to change the way that the project is funded, which was seeing as cut in funding, by the heads of the local and regional authorities in the north, but from the perspective of the finance ministry offices was nothing more than a reallocation of sums (as the below response from the Finance Ministry shows).

Moshe Davidovich, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council (which borders Lebanon) and chair of the Frontline Communities Association, told Shomrim exactly what happened. “This year, they cut the budget from 500 million shekels to 100 million shekels and because it’s a biennial budget, it will be the same in 2024. The upshot is that thousands of homes will remain without protected spaces. Based on a budget of 500 million shekels, we planned to build 5,000 safe rooms. Because it costs around 100,000 shekels to build one safe room, the cut means 4,000 fewer saferooms every year. And all of this is within 2 kilometers of the border. Kiryat Shmona and Shlomi are two communities right on the border. In Kiryat Shmona alone there are 25,000 residents and there’s a shortfall of 7,000 reinforced saferooms.

Moshe Davidovich, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council: “Kiryat Shmona and Shlomi are two communities right on the border. In Kiryat Shmona alone there are 25,000 residents and there’s a shortfall of 7,000 reinforced saferooms"

The 7-Kilometer Trap: ‘We Always Get a Negative Response’

In the south, at least with regard to those communities right on the border, the situation in terms of protected space was better. The region known by the government as the Gaza envelope is an area of land up to 7 kilometers from the border. This entire region is protected by the Home Front Command, as part of a special project that was launched 16 years ago and ended in 2021 – at around the same time as the IDF announced that it had completed construction of the underground barrier between Israel and Gaza.

According to figures from the Housing and Construction Ministry, the project to provide protected spaces for the Gaza envelope saw around 11,000 homes equipped with safe rooms by May 2021. This happened gradually. To begin with, homes within 4 kilometers of the border were fortified and in 2012, following a government decision, it was decided to expand the region known as the Gaza envelope from 4 kilometers to 7 kilometers from the border. Since then, any government decision regarding the Gaza envelope has mainly been in connection with investment in many civilian areas: tax benefits, municipal tax discounts, parcels of land at hugely reduced prices and other measures aimed at boosting population in the region. These measures achieved their goals, especially in the kibbutzim.

Less money has been invested in security measures. In April 2023, for example, the government passed Resolution 462, which allocated an additional 1.7 billion shekels ($425 million) to the Gaza envelope over the next two years. Of that sum, however, just 64 million shekels (3.7 percent of the total) was allocated to the Defense Ministry for what is known as the ‘security elements.’ Most of the money, which is only due in 2024, is earmarked for a regional control center. In retrospect, that is too little, too late.

The central problem when it comes to providing protected spaces for these communities, however, is the decision to define the Gaza envelope as just 7 kilometers into Israel. The Eshkol Regional Council, which was badly hit on October 7 when Hamas terrorists infiltrate its communities, there are communities that are just on the 7-kilometer line and there are others, like Talmei Eliyahu and Ohad which are just outside the 7-kilometer zone where the houses are not protected at all. In Ohad, for example, two Thai nationals were killed during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021.

For years, representatives of the Eshkol Regional Council met with government representatives and begged in vain for the 7-kilometer zone to be expanded. The Merhavim Regional Council, which borders Eshkol and the city of Ofakim, also tried to change the rules – with no success. “It’s all based on a ridiculous decision taken many years ago, which ruled that the Gaza envelope ends after 7 kilometers,” Shay Hagag, a Likud member and head of the Merhavim Regional Council, tells Shomrim.

“We tried everything we could to expand the protected zone,” he says, “as well as the economic benefits that we would enjoy if we were part of the Gaza envelope – but we always got a negative response. The justification was always that if the state has to build protected spaces for us, it will have to do the same to Ashkelon – and that’s a lot of money, so it’s impossible. I got the same answer from every ministry. Now I have 1,800 residents without safe spaces, including elderly people. And the bomb shelters in these communities aren’t worth a thing. Fortunately, there have not been any direct hits.”

MK Meirav Cohen (Yesh Atid) tried to address the issue. “Several years ago,” she says, “I proposed that even if the government does not provide the money, it should help out in terms of dealing with the bureaucracy and getting the process moving. Apart from that, I also believed there should have been an exceptions committee for the elderly population and people with disabilities. For them, we have to find solutions.”

Shay Hagag, a Likud member and head of the Merhavim Regional Council: “It’s all based on a ridiculous decision taken many years ago, which ruled that the Gaza envelope ends after 7 kilometers"

Netanyahu Promised to Protect Ashkelon – by 2031

The local authority which has been hit worst by the lack of protected space is Ashkelon, which falls outside the 7-kilometer zone and which is home to 160,000 people. Around one quarter of them live in apartments without a fortified saferoom – many of those in neighborhoods of low socio-economic status. According to municipal statistics, as of October 18 – seven days after the Hamas massacre – 15 percent of the rockets fired at the city made an impact – 174 rockets out of 1092 that were launched.

Last week, Ashkelon mayor Tomer Glam lambasted Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during a meeting of the Knesset’s Finance Committee. Two days later, Smotrich announced that he was instructing his office to treat Ashkelon as if it were part of the Gaza envelope when it comes to paying compensation for war damage. This is not an insignificant step, but it does not provide any kind of solution to the problem of protected spaces.

Just five months ago, in May 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Ashkelon and promised residents that he would ensure that they have safe rooms. Because of the high budgetary cost, the government’s policy over the years has been to build protected spaces in Ashkelon through urban renewal projects. Although there is some economic logic behind this policy, it makes no sense given the security situation, in which there are rounds of fighting every year or two and in which an urban renewal plan takes many years and a lot of patience – in part because of the sluggish bureaucracy when it comes to approving new projects.

In February 2020, for example, the government passed Resolution 4865, which ordered the Israel Land Authority to fast-track urban renewal projects in Ashkelon in order to address the lack of protected spaces. A similar resolution was passed in December that same year. Change was finally evident in March 2022, during the tenure of the so-called government of change headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. In that decision, the government directly allocated 350 million shekels for safe rooms. According to the plan, homeowners who did not have protected spaces and people with disabilities would be entitled to grants and loans from the government. The plan, however, was implemented behind schedule and only partially.

It was only after Tamar Keidar – an attorney who lives in the city and is now running for mayor – filed a High Court petition that the government started, in July 2023, to publish the means by which residents could request these loans and grants for constructing saferooms. In the end, the government announced that it was allocating 106 million shekels to the project. However, this process lasted just one month. According to Keidar, anyone who managed to submit a request during that month will, it seems, will be eligible for a loan or grant, but anyone who missed the very narrow window of opportunity can no longer do so.

At the end of July, the cuurent government decided to return to a policy of urban renewal. This new decision, which was a reversal of the policy of the Bennett-Lapid government, determined that the budget for urban renewal programs would be bolstered significantly and would stand at 600 million shekels until 2032. An additional 350 million shekels were allocated to subsidize urban renewal projects that were not financially viable.

“I was furious the day after I saw the decision,” Keidar told Shomrim. “The government has been neglecting protected spaces for residents of Ashkelon for years and, in the end, it seems that they are postponing everything until 2031. That just proves that they are not really thinking about protection and security, but about real estate. The behavior of our mayor, Tomer Glam, is also strange. The municipality did not join my High Court petition and then Glam agreed with the new government decision whereby City Hall got a lot of money for other purposes, just a few months before an election campaign. The government has been neglecting the people of Ashkelon for years.”

Ashkelon’s municipality has a different perspective. Officials there agree that the mayor went along with the new government decision but say that he did so because he understood that the state does not have 22 billion shekels to fortify all the houses that lack a saferoom in Ashkelon. However, officials explained to Shomrim that the municipality demanded 2 billion shekels from the government to reinforce homes where urban renewal projects would not be economically viable, but that the government refused.

“The current war proves beyond any shadow of doubt that the government has been helpless,” a City Hall spokesperson said.

Tamar Keidar, Ashkelon: "The government has been neglecting protected spaces for residents of Ashkelon for years. That just proves that they are not really thinking about protection and security, but about real estate"

20 Fatalities: The Bedouin Communities Don’t Even Have Sirens

While Ashkelon residents at least have the protection of the Iron Dome missile defense system and know when to hide as the sirens blare, residents of the Bedouin communities in the Negev have no such luxury. So far, 20 Bedouin citizens have been killed in the fighting. Of them, 17 were residents of the unrecognized villages that make up the Bedouin diaspora and all were killed by Hamas rockets. Six of them were children. In the past few days, alongside the tidal wave of horrific accounts of Hamas atrocities on the kibbutzim and at the outdoor rave, there are also stories emerging about Bedouin who came to the scene of the party and rescued survivors. They did so despite the fact that, when it comes to protected spaces, they have been treated like second-class citizens.

In March 2015, after extensive preparatory work, the state presented its solution to the problem of providing secure spaces for the Bedouin community when it launched the “Program for Protecting the Bedouin Population from Rockets.” That was the state’s response to a High Court petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, submitted a few months earlier. The petition was filed after Operation Protective Edge due to the lack of protected spaces or sirens in the unrecognized Bedouin villages. For the Home Front Command, the main problem is that these communities are unrecognized and therefore illegal and saferooms can only be constructed with the requisite permits.

Taking into account budgetary considerations, the risk level and the number of people without shelter, the government plan included improvements to the early-warning system and building emergency shelters from sandbags and concrete canvas, as well as deploying Iron Dome batteries as needed. The large number of fatalities in these communities during the current fighting, however, shows exactly how much that program has accomplished.

At the outbreak of the current fighting, the National Committee of Arab Local Councils in Israel wrote to the Home Front Command, demanding that portable concrete shelters be deployed in the Bedouin communities. In the meantime, with the financial assistance of the Ministry for Social Equality, such shelters have been placed in recognized Bedouin villages – but not the unrecognized ones. Amir Bisharat, CEO of the committee, says that money is currently being raised, in Israel and overseas, to provide these shelters for the rest of the Bedouin population of the Negev.

“There is absolutely no protection in the unrecognized villages,” Bisharat says. “There’s no Iron Dome because everyone treats those areas like unpopulated regions. For the same reason, there are no missile sirens. And because these people live in lightweight structures, they don’t even have the least-bad option of hiding in their homes between two walls.”

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has also approached the defense establishment about the issue. The organization reminded the Home Front Command that, in the ruling on its rejected High Court petition from 2017, the justices wrote that the defense establishment should use times of relative quiet – which that period was – to plan an ordered solution for the Bedouin population. “The relevant authorities in the Home Front Command are obligated to update in the future the projection solutions in the [Bedouin] diaspora, which is an impoverished area, in accordance with the changing threat level; and they should do so with the goal of equality,” the justices wrote in their ruling.

It is not just the so-called ‘open spaces’ in the Negev that are unprotected. Three Rahat city residents – two of them from the family of mayor Ata Abu Mediam – have been killed since the start of the war and dozens more have been wounded. In May, Abu Mediam contacted Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and warned him that the 25,000 residents of the city have no protection and asked, at the very least, for portable concrete shelters to be sent there.

According to Abu Mediam, a similar request was made in the aftermath of Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021. “The situation has not changed since then,” he says. “I stressed our demand for 60 of these shelters in the city, with coordinates, because there are many families who do not live in permanent structures and they fall under the municipality’s jurisdiction in the south and the north. Inside the city as well there are people who do not have homes.”

Amir Bisharat: “There is absolutely no protection in the unrecognized villages. There’s no Iron Dome because everyone treats those areas like unpopulated regions. For the same reason, there are no missile sirens"

Yair Golan’s Solution: Don’t Wait for a Safe Room

As soon as the war in Gaza broke out, the government started to fast-track solutions. Among the decisions it passed was to exempt private homes from obtaining building permits in advance for the construction of saferooms, allowing them to get permits retroactively. The Home Front Command made this request a year ago but it is only now, thanks to emergency regulations, that it is actually happening. This means that buildings of up to two stories – mainly private dwellings – can build a safe room without permits, as long as the new construction does not exceed the dimensions of the current structure. This solution is not available, however, to buildings with more than two stories – that is, apartment blocks – which means that the problem will remain unresolved for many residents of Kiryat Shmona and Ashkelon, especially if the conflict is a prolonged one.

At the same time, there are other solutions that the state may or may not be considering. One such solution was raised at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in May 2019 by then Knesset member Yair Golan, who served as head of the Home Front Command during Operation Cast Lead in 2008. “In Ashkelon,” Golan said, “the Home Front Command conducted a pilot project whereby we reinforced the stairwells in buildings at minimal cost. We took stairwells, which were constructed out of bricks, and we reinforced them to a whole new level which is not quite like a reinforced concrete room but not far off that. There’s no reason that this pilot should not be turned into a national program … For all those places where citizens cannot afford to pay from their own pockets and build themselves a reinforced concrete room this is an excellent solution.”

This week, Golan told Shomrim: “It would have been a massive improvement on the zero protection that these homes currently have – and the cost is bearable. You can put plates on the walls, special plaster, change the windows – there are plenty of things that can be done quickly and relatively cheaply, without having to resort to a reinforced concrete room.”

Dr. Benny Brosh, the former chief engineer at the Home Front Command, adds: “There are protective measures that have been approved by the Home Front Command which can be installed in any room in an apartment for extra fortification. These systems are based on coating the walls with a special material that is especially strong and which blocks the blast from the explosion that usually causes brick walls to collapse inwards. It’s known as membrane reinforcement and it comes as a roll of fabric or a plate that is attached to the edges of any wall made of concrete, from the floor to the ceiling. This significantly mitigates the impact of the blast.”