A top Iranian official has once again issued a clear warning that any threat from Israel will be met with a full response, asserting that Iran’s missiles are ready.
These statements cast a renewed spotlight on the sense of insecurity in Israel, particularly concerning any future conflict that could find approximately 60% of Israelis without a protected space in their homes.
Even today, more than 2.5 million citizens who lack a protected room inside their residence (known in Israel as a "mamad") are dependent on public shelters. The assumption is that these shelters are available, accessible, and secure. In reality, however, they are often locked, distant, or in a state of poor maintenance.
This past April, the Magen Hatzafon (Northern Shield) program was announced, allocating grants of up to NIS 132,000 per home for adding a mamad to apartments near the Lebanese border. This initiative, with a budget of approximately NIS 1.2 billion, is expected to benefit at least 10,000 families residing close to the border.
Additionally, the National Planning Council has granted an exemption from building permits for mamad additions, leading to the submission and approval of around 4,470 applications through an expedited track.
However, therein lies the problem: Not everyone lives in the North. Basic protection should not be a luxury, and an economic pathway must be established to enable the addition of residential protection in every home.
Protection retrofitting
What happens when building a new mamad is not an option due to a lack of space or structural constraints? A viable solution exists but has not received sufficient attention: protection retrofitting. This is a defined engineering process, approved by the IDF Home Front Command, designed to convert an existing internal room into a protected space.
It provides significant defense against emergency threats. This is not an ad-hoc fix, but a systematic upgrade of a chosen room – typically an interior room with a minimal number of external walls.
The process focuses on strengthening the inherent weak points of any standard room. This involves reinforcing the interior walls with composite panels certified by the Home Front Command to withstand blast waves, and replacing the standard openings. The regular door is substituted with a regulation blast door anchored to the frame, while the existing window is replaced with a protected one that includes an external, blast-resistant steel shutter.
In cases where constructing a new safe room is not feasible, retrofitting an existing room is the most effective solution. This comprehensive approach is significantly cheaper than building a new one, faster to implement (often within a few days), and ideally suited for existing buildings or dense neighborhoods where new construction is impossible.
This solution has already proven its worth in the recent conflict: In buildings where it was installed, residents emerged unharmed, even when the building itself sustained damage.
State must support process
The public is willing to invest its own money, but the state must support this process and make it accessible. This can be achieved by expanding the grant program to central Israel, not just the North, and by including these retrofitting solutions within the NIS 132,000 funding framework currently offered in the North.
A safe room is a fundamental security necessity. Protected rooms in apartments must become an integral part of our socioeconomic and security fabric – a basic right for all citizens.
This is a strategic investment in our national resilience and the functional continuity of our economy. A protected population is one that can continue to function, at least partially, even under fire. It reduces the need for mass evacuations, lessens the strain on state infrastructure, and preserves the fabric of civilian life.
Furthermore, an equitable protection policy is a cornerstone of distributive justice and social solidarity. The current gap between protected and unprotected citizens demands an affordable solution for all to ensure true equality.
The writer is the CEO of Ortech Defense Systems.