In Israel, many homes are built with dedicated bomb shelters which are reinforced and designed to withstand not just conventional threats like those from rockets, but also chemical warfare. Any home built after 1993 is required to have a room for this purpose.
When the siren sounds, you’re supposed to enter the mamad, or protected room, which has a little window. In some cases, after the threat has passed, the window can serve as a way for the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to come by and let you know the danger has passed.
In Jerusalem, we lived in economy housing in an older multi-story building. Our entire apartment was not much bigger than a mamad. So we didn’t have a bomb shelter in our apartment. There might have been a community shelter in the bottom of the apartment building. I don’t know. Nobody ever thought to tell us about one and it did not occur to us to ask.
Fortunately, things were relatively peaceful during our time in Jerusalem and we did not have need of a mamad.
Neighborhoods also have designated shelters for people to seek refuge in during rocket or other attacks.
Below are photos of us with our friend who was showing us the bomb shelter in his apartment. Notice the little window in the upper left of the photos.
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