“Tel Aviv has become a target for Iran not only because it is considered by the Iranians to be the ‘capital’ of Israel, but also because of the huge concentration of old buildings, 60 to 80 years old, that were constructed without adequate structural protection and without reinforced construction,” says engineer Israel David, acting chairman of the Israel Association for Construction and Infrastructure Engineers (IACIE).
“About one-third of buildings in Israel lack adequate structural protection, and the numbers are even higher in the older cities. The war has exposed a simple truth, the new structures take a hit and keep on standing, the old structures simply collapse.”
David is one of Israel’s most prominent contracting engineers. He maintains, “These buildings are a time bomb. The issue keeps getting stuck with the same old excuses: no budget, no agreement, no decisions. In the meantime, budgets have been allocated to preserve facades, floor tiles, and windows, but there is no investment in the resilience that saves lives. This isn’t an engineering problem; it’s a problem of priorities.”
David also sharply criticizes Israel’s conservation policy. “Conservation in Israel has become preoccupied with visibility only. Old buildings are treated like a diamond that must not be touched, even when they’re rotting on the inside. Structural protection and reinforcement are hardly considered, and this is dangerous. If a building can’t be reinforced for preservation to a true level of safety, the truth must be told: people must not be allowed to live in it. Urban renewal must become a national emergency operation now, and any further postponement will be responsible for the next collapse.”
David is also a harsh critic of Israel’s defense doctrine. In an interview on the topic with “Globes” during the Iran operation last June, he said: “If I had to choose between being in a safe room, stairwell or basement, I would stay in a safe room. But after 33 years, it is appropriate to rethink the issue of protection.”
Referring to the “invention” of the safe room, he said, “The safe room was invented in 1992. The scenario was that the safe room did not have to withstand a direct hit, but only a missile blast, at a distance of 15 meters from the room. But there have been completely different threats since then… The Iranians have thousands of missiles, with payloads that can be up to two tons. That didn’t exist at all in the 1992 missiles. We need to think about changes in risk management and also technology.”
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on March 1, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.