Israel Aims To Make Safer "Safe Rooms" After Lessons From Iran, Hamas Attacks

Israeli engineers are blasting residential bomb shelters at a desert range in a bid to design better "safe rooms" based on the lessons of Hamas's attack in 2023 and this summer's 12-day war and missile exchanges with Iran.

Existing shelters are built with thick concrete and steel reinforcement to withstand close-range blasts and serve as regular bedrooms, studies or storage spaces in peacetime. The military is now considering sturdier materials, thicker walls and even pre-wiring the safe rooms to let residents receive emergency radio communications.

Nearly two years of multi-front conflict have seen thousands of rockets and ballistic missiles fired at Israeli cities - as well as massive destruction in Gaza from Israeli fire and almost 63,000 fatalities, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. The Iranian, Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah projectiles have killed fewer than 100 people in Israel, due to a combination of sophisticated safe rooms and air defence systems.

"The mamad has definitely proven its value in this war," said Lt. Col. Moshe Shlomo, head of engineering at the Israel Defence Forces Homefront Command, using the Hebrew acronym for the safe rooms. While Israel maintains a network of public bomb shelters, he said they are not always accessible or reliable. A safe room inside the home offers immediate protection when sirens sound at night.

Safe rooms have been mandatory in new Israeli homes after the Iraqi Scud missile attacks of the 1991 Gulf War. For years, though, many residents questioned the added expense.

That perception shifted as cities like Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem were hit in June by Iranian fire. Trendy neighbourhoods emptied overnight as student tenants fled unprotected rentals for their parents' safe room-equipped homes in outlying areas.

Israel's air-defence systems intercepted roughly 85% of Iran's ballistic missiles, according to the Israeli government and military. But those that got through caused at least $3 billion of damage to buildings and killed 31 people.

"It's hard to imagine now, but before October 7, a mamad wasn't considered essential by most Israelis," said Tal Kopel, chief executive officer of Madlan, a clearing-house for property transactions, referring to the date of Hamas's attack in 2023. "Even during previous military operations, when rockets reached central Israel, search patterns and preferences didn't significantly change."

Israeli properties with a safe room advertise it - and charge more. In Tel Aviv, that's pushing up prices in what's already one of the world's most expensive cities. Web searches for safe rooms more than doubled after Oct. 7 and climbed further following the June flare-up with Iran, according to Kopel.

Since last year, the number of homes with a safe room has risen by nearly 50%, according to Israel Builders Association and IDF data.

Refining Under Fire

Still, officials see shortcomings.

Orange-helmeted soldiers combing the wreckage of Iranian strikes were not only rescuing survivors or recovering bodies - they were also collecting data for the team of architects, engineers and demolitions experts now refining the shelters.

A minivan-sized frame of a spent ballistic missile stands on display at the entrance to the Homefront Command headquarters outside Tel Aviv, where Shlomo is based.

His staff use computer simulations to assess proposed adjustments to safe-room design. The prototypes are then hauled down to a desert range, to be shot at or subjected to controlled explosions.

One objective is making rooms harder to breach. On Oct. 7, gunmen from Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and many other governments, broke into safe rooms and abducted or killed residents after prolonged struggles at the doors.

The military now plans to line doors with two centimetres (0.8 inches) of steel, resistant to bullets and harder to force open. The reinforced versions can be locked from the inside and will cost as much as $2,000.

Stronger designs come with steeper costs. Installing a safe room can raise overall home construction expenses by 12% to 15%, said Alon Rozen, chief executive of crisis-management firm Elements Group.

Outer walls are meant to be about 40 centimetres thick with rebar and cement, though full protection from a direct hit would require walls nearly 10 times as thick. Six of the people killed by Iran's missiles had been in their safe rooms.

Private safe rooms can cost as much as $75,000, though the government subsidizes construction in high-risk areas. Homeowners also qualify for tax relief, with Shlomo citing municipal discounts of 30% to 40% for a standard nine-square-meter (97-square-foot) safe room.

Policymakers are rethinking function as well as form - safe rooms providing protection for hours, rather than just minutes. Parliament passed an amendment to building regulations last month allowing shelters to expand by six square meters, with half the additional space reserved for an en-suite toilet.

"This is an historic decision, which I hope we will not need to avail ourselves of," said coalition lawmaker Yaakov Asher.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)