In the Ramat Eliyahu neighborhood of Rishon LeZion, most buildings do not include a protected apartment, floor or shelter space, and stairwells do not constitute standard protected spaces. During alarms, residents rely mainly on shared public shelters. However, many of these shelters are routinely allocated by the municipality for various uses, such as operating synagogues and yeshivas, and are loaded with furniture and objects so that they cannot be freely entered, or do not have room for all residents who need them. During the war, the municipality did not require the users of the shelters to remove the large amount of equipment so that they could fulfill their original purpose and protect the residents.
On January 2, 2024 ACRI sent legal correspondence (Hebrew), to the mayor of Rishon LeZion demanding the clearance and maintenance of the public shelters in the neighborhood. In the correspondence, ACRI’S Public Hotline Manager Attorney Reut Shaer and Field Coordinator Sivan Tahal noted that the municipality's failure to clear and maintain the shelters violates its legal obligation, endangers the residents and violates their rights to life, dignity and equality. We demanded that the municipality take immediate action to clear the shelters, and to publish to the public the map of the neighborhood shelters in various ways and in the relevant languages.