Most Arab-Israeli Villages in Northern Israel Lack Access to Bomb Shelters
Some 70% of Israeli-Arab villages in northern Israel have no access to safe rooms or bomb shelters, and 25% do not have emergency sirens, according to a report released Tuesday by the Israeli-Arab rights group “Mubadarah.”
The report also found that 80% of Israeli-Arab villages are not prepared to handle a crisis situation, including an escalated military situation, missile strikes or a natural disaster.
In Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab city, there are no public shelters, and 75% of the residents have no access to private shelters, according to the report. In the Arava region, the report found that 99% of the residents have no access to shelters whatsoever.
In many of the Arab communities probed by the report, the only protected areas are inside the schools.
The report also found that in the majority of mixed Arab-Jewish cities in Israel, Arab neighborhoods are not prepared to face an emergency situation.
On Tuesday, Israel’s Home Front Command began a week-long nationwide drill to test the country’s preparedness for a catastrophe.
Tuesday’s drill tested the national system of 2,300 sirens and included a request for all citizens to enter their secure rooms for 10 minutes.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.