Towers in wartime

A little more than a year ago luxury residential towers, one of them 43 stories high, in north Tel-Aviv were hit directly by Iranian ballistic missiles and cluster munitions causing structural damage, hundreds of residents evacuated. Given the thousands of hi-rise buildings that have been built in Israel, it seems just a matter of time before additional towers will be suffer a similar fate. The war with Iran and its proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis is far from over, the future uncertain.

Living in a high-rise building in wartime entails great risks. High building silhouettes stand out on targeting systems. Densely populated urban areas are naturally selected for attack by our enemies.

In cases of direct hits towers are vulnerable to structural collapse, power outages and disruption of utilities – electricity, gas, water and sanitation, likely. High-altitude blasts can blow out windows, flying glass and debris, lethal to those inside.

If elevators are disabled and residents on their upper floors are forced to evacuate, having to descend tens of floors by foot is difficult for most, physically impossible for many, especially small children and the elderly. Many residential towers don’t have basement air-raid shelters.

May we ask where the wealthy real-estate developers who have built these high-rise buildings live? It comes at little surprise that many reside in low-density, exclusive suburban enclaves – Savyon, Herzliya Pituach, Arsuf, and the like.

Having approved the construction of the thousands of residential, office and hotel towers flooding every major city in the country, the responsibility for dealing with this dangerous situation lies squarely with our national and municipal governments, who at the very least must ensure that proper shelters be provided for hi-rise building residents. We must be better prepared.

Gerard Heumann – Architect and Urban Designer, Jerusalem.