Since May 15, Palestinian gunners have fired more than 130 Kassam-class,
short-range missiles into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli
military, restrained by the government, has been restricted to air strikes
against confirmed Hamas targets.
Operation LifeShield has lobbied Israeli parliamentarians in an effort
for the government to procure the shelters. In January 2007, the government
of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert allocated more than 300 million shekels, or
$75 million, for shelters, but spent only five million shekels, or $1.25
million.
Organizers said Operation LifeShield intends to produce and distribute
thousands of mobile shelters around Israel. The operation has sought to
raise funds to provide communities and hospitals with the 42-ton shelter.
On Sunday, a LifeShield shelter, designed according to Israeli military standards, was provided to the Israeli town of
Sderot, which has borne the brunt of Palestinian missile strikes. About 25
percent of Sderot's 20,000 people have been evacuated from the town.
"We already have requests from dozens of municipalities, hospitals
and nursing homes," Adler said. "This comes to hundreds of shelters."
The shelter measures 3.8x3.4 meters, with a height of three meters. The
structure, which can accommodate 30 people, contains 30-centimeter thick
Flexdek steel-reinforced concrete walls.
"Once you have a transportable unit, you can place it anywhere it is
needed," [Res.] Col. Amos Lotan, a technical adviser to the project, said.
Lotan said Israel would require thousands of such shelters to protect
the population in any regional war. The shelter, which could be linked to a
nuclear, biological and chemical protection system, was priced at about
$36,000.
LifeShield was designed by Israeli civil engineer Haim Finkelstein and
produced by Orpaz Engineering, based in Bet Shean, Israel. Orpaz project
manager Yossi Ben-Baruch said 20 shelters have been produced and envisioned
sales outside Israel.
"This can be exportable in the next stage," Ben-Baruch said.
