A siren: where to go and when to leave
Your phone vibrates. A Home Front Command message. But no siren. What do you do? Stay in the living room? Run to the reinforced room? If already inside, when do you leave? There is no time to search Google for instructions in those moments. Learn them now, on an ordinary, quiet day.
A Ministry of Aliyah and Integration page, published on 17 June 2025 and updated the next day, divides Home Front Command alerts into two. The first is an advance alert, about ten minutes beforehand, instructing people to "prepare yourselves." The second is the final alert: sirens and the instruction "enter the protected space now." Remain inside until an official message says you may leave.
Exactly where to go
The priority is clear: a mamad, a mamak, the building shelter or a public shelter. What is the difference? A mamad is a reinforced room inside the apartment. A mamak is a protected space on the floor or in the building, not necessarily inside the home. A public shelter is the destination for someone unable to reach either within their community's allotted time.
If your building is old and has no mamad, you are not alone. There is no guarantee every old building received one. There is a priority order, and that is precisely what needs knowing in advance.
The ten‑minute mistake
Back to the opening question: a phone alert without a siren. Is it over? Absolutely not. On 2 March 2026, Hof HaSharon Regional Council published a clarification on exactly this: advance alerts bring people closer to protected spaces, and an all‑clear is sent when the event ends, even if no siren sounded at all.
What about the ten minutes everyone remembers? That is a habit from previous years, no longer the rule. Exit depends on the all‑clear, not the clock. The local clarification also gave a shelter‑entry time of a minute and a half for the communities addressed. Front‑line communities may have a shorter window. Check your own time in the Home Front Command app according to the community set there, not the city you visited yesterday.
Numbers to save on your phone
Official channels are the Home Front Command app, the Home Front Command website, the National Emergency Portal and the command's Telegram channel. The numbers: Home Front Command 104, WhatsApp 0529104104. Police 100, Magen David Adom ambulance service 101, fire service 102. Missing persons hotline 115, welfare hotline 118 and senior citizens hotline *8840. All provide emergency guidance. None replaces entering shelter once the siren sounds.
What to prepare now, not during the event
A short list should be checked once on an ordinary day. Where the heavy door is and whether the key is there. Whether the protected‑space window closes properly. Water and regular medicines within reach, not in a bag elsewhere. A charged phone, because the all‑clear arrives through it. Without a battery, you rely on a neighbor or radio. In any case, do not leave merely because quiet has returned.
Living high up in a building without a mamad? Time the descent to the shelter once on an ordinary day. If it takes longer than your community's warning time, a nearer protected space is preferable to a courtyard shelter you cannot reach. A committee's failure to hang a sign does not remove your need to know the location.
There is another, entirely different case: a hazardous‑materials alert. The instructions differ: seal openings and stay inside according to the message. Do not confuse it with leaving after an all‑clear from incoming fire.
The rule in one line
Two sounds. The first brings you closer to shelter. The second sends you inside. Leave only on a message, not at the tenth minute.
One easily forgotten point: someone staying with others, or a child arriving home after school, must know the same sequence at the address where they are that evening. Alerts follow the community configured in the app. If it is wrong, an alert may arrive late or concern a different city altogether. Correcting the community takes a minute. It belongs to the same preparation as checking the door.
