The Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command said on Tuesday it would no longer be issuing alerts urging civilians to stay near bomb shelters ahead of confirmed missile or drone launches from Iran.
The alerts, which were sent out up to 30 minutes before launches were detected but after the military recognized preparations for an attack, will now be replaced by a 10-minute alert after a confirmed launch.
Citizens are to seek shelter immediately after receiving the new alert and stay there until Home Front Command gives the all-clear, it said.
The IDF clarified that while it wasn’t canceling the early warning system altogether, it has not always been able to issue one ahead of time, with Home Front Command urging that “it should not be relied upon.”
Early on June 13, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets attacked dozens of enemy targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a “preemptive, precise, combined” opening strike against Tehran’s nuclear program.
Since the start of the war, Iranian attacks on Israel’s civilian population centers have killed 24 people in the Jewish state. Three were killed on Friday, 13 overnight on Saturday and eight early on Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the operation would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” vowing to end the Iranian threat to the Jewish state’s “very survival.”
