More than a third of Israelis live without access to a standard protected space against ballistic missiles from Iran, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen, exposing a significant gap in civil defense infrastructure that is forcing families to improvise emergency shelter arrangements. A new digital platform called Angels of the Shelter is attempting to bridge this protection gap by connecting unshielded residents with neighbors willing to share safe rooms during missile threats.
The initiative reveals the extent to which ordinary citizens are filling voids left by inadequate public defense systems. The platform mediates between shelter owners willing to open their homes and people without protection looking for shelter, with accommodation arranged in advance rather than in real time, allowing people to arrive at the protected space with advance notice. Users can view shelters within a few minutes' walk and filter them by host type, accessibility and distance.
The Civil Defense Crisis
The scope of the problem is stark: more than a third of the Israeli population lacks basic protection against aerial threats that have become routine since the escalation of regional conflicts. This structural vulnerability means millions of Israelis must rely on informal networks and the goodwill of neighbors rather than state-provided civil defense infrastructure.
The platform was developed by Tamir Cohen, a 26-year-old biomedical engineering student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, after recognizing the urgent need during the current conflict. Cohen, who was born in Kiryat Ono and is participating in the LEADERS program of the Entrepreneurship Center 360 at the university, created the website to address a crisis he witnessed firsthand.
Cohen described the human toll of the protection gap: "Since the start of the war, I have come across quite a few cases of relatives and friends who have wandered from house to house, and I personally found myself staying with neighbors who built a protected space in their garden." He also observed broader patterns of displacement: "I also saw articles about people sleeping on the light rail or in parking lots, and about weddings held in shelters."
These accounts illustrate how the absence of adequate public civil defense infrastructure forces Israelis into precarious situations, from homelessness during missile alerts to conducting life events in emergency shelters.
Personal Experience Meets Systemic Need
Cohen's inspiration came four years ago during a hiking experience on the Israel National Trail, which runs from Kibbutz Dan in the north to Eilat in the south and is 1,100 km long. He described the trail's significance: "The Israel National Trail is a hiking path marked white, blue, and orange. Its significance lies in promoting national identity, commemorating fallen soldiers, connecting diverse cultures, and fostering tourism through its immense geographical, historical, and religious diversity."
During that hike, Cohen experienced the kindness of strangers offering shelter—an encounter that later inspired his response to the wartime crisis. When missile warnings began, he found himself running to a neighbor's protected space in his pajamas, joining other residents and their dogs in cramped quarters. "I recognized the need, as I learned in BGU's LEADERS program in which I'm participating," Cohen said.
He connected his hiking experience to the urgent shelter crisis: "The Angels of the Trail are people who opened their homes and hearts to me without any desire for compensation and deepened my sense of mutual responsibility. This is where I got the idea to connect this feeling with the need I identified during the war on the home front. I decided to establish a platform called 'Angels of the Shelters' which brings the spirit of the 'Angels of the Trail' to the world of emergency routine."
Mutual Aid as Civil Defense
Cohen, who served in the IDF in intelligence technology and is now in his fourth year at BGU, emphasized the social dimension of the initiative: "I was interested in promoting solidarity, bringing people who have protected spaces in their homes or gardens and are ready to welcome neighbors who lack them."
The platform demonstrates how communities are organizing mutual aid networks to compensate for public infrastructure failures. Cohen noted that his parents in Kiryat Ono have a protected space in their apartment that they share with others, exemplifying the voluntary cooperation his platform facilitates.
Beyond emergency response, Cohen envisions the platform addressing broader social isolation: "I want to get as many people as possible matched with a protected space. It's for an emergency, and it is saving lives. But I want to turn this cooperation into one used in routine times, for example, so that people, including the elderly, won't feel alone."
Institutional Support for Grassroots Solutions
The LEADERS program that incubated Angels of the Shelter is headed by Gadi Bahat, who described the university's approach to entrepreneurship. Bahat said, "We cultivate entrepreneurs who know how to create value in a changing reality."
Regarding Cohen's initiative, Bahat stated: "Tamir identified a real-time need, connected it to a personal experience, and built a relevant solution, and this is exactly the standard we aim for. We select excellent students, set a high bar for them, and accompany them with real tools that also develop a sense of competence, to turn ideas into action – because in the end, this is what produces results."
Bahat explained the broader mission of the Entrepreneurship 360 Center: "The Entrepreneurship 360 Center promotes innovation and entrepreneurship in the Negev region and plays a vital role in connecting academia and industry. It was established with a vision to transform ideas from university communities into impactful initiatives and constitutes a dynamic ecosystem in which students, researchers and professionals collaborate to advance technological and social developments."
The LEADERS program connects classroom learning to societal needs through workshops, lectures, volunteer mentorship and training on cutting-edge technology. Cohen described the curriculum: the first semester focuses on developing business ideas and turning them into opportunities, while the second emphasizes implementation and creating conditions for success. The program includes a two-week summer accelerator at the beginning of August in which students translate classroom experience into real-world ventures.
Why This Matters:
Angels of the Shelter exposes a critical infrastructure gap that affects more than a third of the Israeli population—millions of people without state-provided protection against aerial threats. The reliance on voluntary neighborhood networks and digital platforms to address this gap reveals how inadequate public civil defense systems shift the burden of emergency preparedness onto individual citizens and community goodwill. While grassroots mutual aid initiatives like Cohen's platform demonstrate social solidarity, they cannot substitute for comprehensive public infrastructure. The platform's success in connecting vulnerable residents with shelter highlights both the ingenuity of civil society and the limits of voluntary cooperation as a response to systemic protection deficits. From a center-left perspective concerned with equitable access to public goods and institutional accountability, this situation underscores the need for government investment in civil defense infrastructure that protects all residents equally, regardless of neighborhood wealth or social connections.