The Media Line: Earthquake Alerts To Begin at 4.5 Magnitude, Israel’s Home Front Command Says  

Earthquake Alerts To Begin at 4.5 Magnitude, Israel’s Home Front Command Says  

By Gabriel Colodro / The Media Line  

Israel’s civil defense system is most often associated with missile sirens and wartime alerts. Yet during a recent briefing by the Home Front Command, attention turned to a different threat: earthquakes, and the precise conditions under which civilians will be warned.  

According to Lt. Col. E, Israel’s early warning system will notify the public only once seismic activity reaches a magnitude of at least 4.5 on the Richter scale. Earthquakes below that level are detected by sensors but do not trigger public alerts. If a quake measures between 4.5 and 6, notifications are sent only to affected areas. A magnitude 6 quake or higher would prompt a nationwide alert.  

“We can’t predict an earthquake,” Lt. Col. E said. “But we have sensors spread throughout the country, and once the sensor senses that there’s an earthquake strong enough to matter, the system sends a message.” The aim, he explained, is to warn only when there is a meaningful risk to people or infrastructure.  

That selectivity is deliberate. “Every siren that goes off makes civilians stop their life routine,” he said. “It has a psychological impact, it affects trust, and it affects the economy.” Excessive or inaccurate alerts, he warned, can erode public confidence in the system itself.  

The operational concept, according to Lt. Col. E, is precision. Once a threat is detected and its impact zone calculated, alerts are sent only where action is required. “Accuracy is very important in how we work,” he said. “If people get warnings that don’t match reality, they slowly stop believing. It becomes the boy who cried wolf.”  

He noted that Israel once functioned as a single alert zone, where any missile launch triggered sirens nationwide. Today, the country is divided into roughly 1,800 alert polygons. That same logic now applies to earthquakes, allowing alerts to be localized rather than automatic and nationwide.  

Earthquake alerts are also clearly differentiated from missile warnings. The siren pattern is different, and the alert begins with a spoken warning announcing an earthquake before the tone changes, ensuring civilians understand how to respond.  

Lt. Col. E stressed that alerts alone are insufficient. Regular drills are conducted in schools and municipalities, covering both missile attacks and earthquakes. Instructions are available online and reinforced by news broadcasts during emergencies. “If citizens don’t know what to do when they hear the siren, all the technology won’t help,” he said.  

The system has been adapted to Israel’s diverse population, with alerts available in multiple languages and formats, including solutions for people with hearing or visual impairments and observant communities on Shabbat.  

Trust, he added, has grown as accuracy improved. At the start of the war, about 1 million to 2 million Israelis had downloaded the Home Front Command app. “Once people saw that the information was correct,” he said, “that number doubled and even tripled.”  

For earthquakes, as with other threats, the message was clear: warn carefully, warn precisely and protect credibility, because public trust remains one of Israel’s most critical lines of defense.