Israel: Arab-Israelis face unequal access to bomb shelters

France 24

24-06-2025

00:58
Jaffa resident Nasser Kteilat, an Arab-Israeli, sent this video to the FRANCE 24 Observers team. The footage captures Kteilat outside a building housing a shelter, where he states that the access code has been changed, rendering the shelter inaccessible.
Nasser Kteilat, an Arab-Israeli – a citizen of Israel who belongs to the country's Arab population – lives in the municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. He sought refuge in a bomb shelter near his apartment on June 13, the first day of the Iranian bombardment.
The bombings started here. It was very close to our home, like often. Most of the time, bombings happen in Tel Aviv. Usually, during previous attacks with Hamas, we would go down to the stairs of the building. But this time, it was different. These were Iranian rockets, much bigger and more dangerous.
Our building is mixed: Arabs, Jews, and Christians. So, we went down on the first day and neighbours were there. We sat down, each on our own side. They looked at us with a lot of anger. It was only for 15 minutes, so it was okay. We are used to it… We are the Arabs here… They don't like us.
Then, when it was over and we wanted to go out, a young woman stopped us. She spoke as if she was sorry, as if she liked us, but she said the neighbours had decided not to let anyone in at the next alert. What's strange is that she doesn't even live in the building, yet she was the one treating us like strangers.
I came back the next day. Even before I arrived, they had changed the code. They didn't want us to come in. So I called the municipal centre. A woman answered and started saying: 'Yes… They won't let you in because you're Arabs.'
I went back the next day, because of a new alert. A neighbour was outside and gave me the new code. The code was 1948 [Editor's note: the year of the expulsion of Palestinians from the newly established State of Israel, known by Palestinians as the "Nakba', Arabic for "catastrophe."]
It's sad, it's awful. You feel at home and at the same time like a stranger. You're no longer welcome.
This isn't an isolated incident. Since the initial Iranian attacks on June 13, several videos have been circulating on social media, showing scenes where individuals are being turned away or prevented from entering Israeli shelters.
The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to Ofer Cassif, an Israeli lawmaker for the left-wing Hadash-Taal alliance:
Since the war with Iran began, there have been daily cases of people who have to run to shelters because of the sirens. Almost every day, there are cases of people who are not allowed into a shelter. Cases have been reported, mainly involving Arab citizens, but also foreign workers, families from Ukraine, and people with pets.
These incidents don't just involve Israeli-Arabs. A family was not allowed because they had children. Other people were rejected because they came from another building. It's illegal to refuse or disallow someone from entering a shelter, even if it's in a private building. You must allow it, as required by law.
On June 19, Cassif took to X to call on the Home Front Command – the Israeli military unit responsible for civilian protection – to establish a dedicated hotline for reporting instances where individuals are denied access to shelters during alerts.
In his letter, he condemned a 'fundamentally flawed phenomenon that primarily affects the weaker sections of society and minority groups that suffer from severe protection and integration problems, and from racial and social discrimination'.
While these discriminatory acts target foreign workers, Arab-Israelis, and even other Israelis, Cassif said that 'most of the dozen or so cases documented primarily involved Arab citizens'.
Unequal protections for Arab and Israeli communities
An Iranian missile strike in Tamra, northern Israel, killed four women and injured about a dozen people on June 14.
Cassif said:
In this Arab city of nearly 40,000 residents, there are no public shelters. Just a few kilometres away, there is a Jewish community of fewer than 10,000 people, and they have more than 10 shelters. In Israel, there are about 9 to 10 million people, and about two and a half million don't have a shelter or even a secure room to go to. So it's definitely a problem, mainly for Arabs, but not only. This is an issue of institutionalised racial discrimination.
A 2018 report by the Israeli State Comptroller on the protection of non-Jewish civilians found that 46% of Arab citizens in Israel lack access to adequate shelters, compared to 26% of the general population.
Several Israeli NGOs, including Sikkuy-Aufoq, an organisation dedicated to promoting equality and partnership between Jewish and Arab-Palestinian citizens, have for years condemned these structural inequalities in civil protection. Sikkuy-Aufoq highlights a substantial gap in access to public shelters.
Another example highlights this disparity. Along Highway 85, a major road connecting western and eastern Galilee, Arab communities have only one bomb shelter for every 26,000 residents, whereas the nearby Jewish city of Karmiel has one shelter for every 440 people, according to Sikkuy-Aufoq. Furthermore, legal hurdles severely impede the installation of protected rooms (known as "mamads") in private Arab homes, excluding many families.
Sikkuy-Aufoq also warns of limited access to information on this issue, particularly due to documents not being translated into Arabic. This lack of translation hinders requests for administrative exemptions that would facilitate such construction.
These inequalities extend to school protections as well: 26% of Arab schools lack adequate protective infrastructure, compared to 13% in Jewish communities.
'They try to find solutions by themselves'
This discrimination also affects the Bedouin people, most of whom are Arab-Israelis, living in villages not recognised by the Israeli state, particularly in the southern Negev Desert.
Cassif explained: 'Most of these villages have existed since before the establishment of the State of Israel, but Israel considers them illegal entities. Because of that, they have no basic infrastructure, no electricity, running water, gas – and no shelters. In those areas, the citizens are in the worst situation: they have nothing and nowhere to go.'
Even in the towns that are supposed to have basic services, about half the residents lack access to missile shelters, according to Adalah, an NGO working to protect the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel. The situation is similar in both recognised and unrecognised villages: there are few or no roads, infrastructure, shelters, or alert sirens. Regardless of their legal status, living conditions remain extremely precarious.
Marwan Abu Frieh, a regional coordinator for the Negev region and a field researcher at Adalah, told our team: 'More than 12,000 shelters would be needed to properly protect these communities.' The NGO, aided by other Israeli and foreign organisations, managed to gather only 350.
Facing a complete lack of assistance from the Israeli government, local organisations like Adallah and municipalities are stepping up to build mobile shelters, each costing a minimum of 50,000 shekels (12,000 to 14,000 US dollars).
Abu Frieh continued:
Since October 7, they have been trying to find solutions by themselves. They go under the bridge of the highway. They try to put containers in the ground to use them as shelters for children, the elderly, mothers… Many Bedouins have nothing. Without internet on your phone, you can't even receive siren alerts. And if you don't have a shelter, you have nowhere to take refuge. Children are afraid, men and women too. People run under the bridge when sirens come. Some of them stay there day and night.
But over 130,000 people remain without any protection or aid because the government refuses to intervene in unrecognised villages, which it deems to have no legal status.
All construction in these communities is deemed illegal, as no permits have been issued. However, even residents in recognised villages face the same roadblock: no permits are granted. Authorities claim this falls under national security and military command, placing it outside the purview of the Supreme Court.