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Repeated air raid warnings and the pressure of prolonged conflict are heightening tensions among neighbors and families sheltering together.
By Shula Rosen
Israel’s Welfare Ministry has expanded a nationwide mediation program into bomb shelters as the war with Iran and the ongoing missile threat strain relations among civilians forced to share confined underground spaces.
The emergency effort is being carried out through the Gishurim mediation initiative run by the nonprofit Mosaica, which trains volunteers to resolve disputes within communities.
During Operation Roaring Lion, the program has begun addressing conflicts that arise when residents gather in public shelters during Home Front Command alerts.
The ministry said repeated air raid warnings and the pressure of prolonged conflict are heightening tensions among neighbors and families sheltering together.
Noa Shalev, who manages the mediation program, said disputes inside shelters often reflect problems that existed before the war but intensify under stress.
“When there is already an underlying conflict, whether between neighbors or within a family, war only intensifies it,” she told Ynet. “Whatever was already on the edge gets pushed even further.”
Among the situations mediators have encountered since the start of the conflict are arguments over who controls access to a building’s shelter, disagreements about whether to allow passersby inside, and complaints about pets frightening children during alerts.
“A neighbor who takes over the building’s shelter, passersby that residents argue about whether to let inside, a neighbor who comes down with a dog and scares the small children,” Shalev said.
The mediation network operates in 80 municipalities and includes about 1,600 volunteers who have completed professional training.
In routine periods, the service handles disputes in public spaces and within families, with referrals arriving through local residents, municipal welfare departments, police and occasionally the courts.
Since the start of the war with Iran, the program has shifted into an emergency framework and opened a hotline for people seeking help resolving tensions linked to the security situation.
“We are not the police, who come in and make a ruling,” she said. “We use tools that help build trust and restore a sense of control over people’s lives.”
Mediation teams have already intervened in several disputes during the conflict, including a large public shelter in central Israel and a residential building where neighbors had been locked in a long-running conflict.
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