Northern Israeli officials say the army left them “operating blind” after disabling a key rocket tracking system over leak fears. [Getty]
The Israeli army has blocked local authorities and reserve liaison officers in northern settlements and towns from accessing the Shual system, a key platform used to identify the direction of rockets launched from Lebanon and predict likely impact zones, sparking anger among officials who say they have been left unable to respond effectively during attacks.
According to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, which reported the details on Thursday, the Shual system is a national Home Front Command control-and-coordination platform developed to synchronise emergency management among agencies responsible for crisis response during wartime and emergencies.
Its main advantage lies in its ability to predict and map “polygons” showing expected impact zones, allowing targeted early warnings and enabling emergency and rescue teams to respond quickly after strikes hit.
Until now, municipalities in northern Israel had used the system to locate dangerous unexploded ordnance, dispatch search teams rapidly and determine whether casualties had occurred.
The issue came to light last week after Hezbollah fired rockets from Lebanon towards the northern Baram, Dovev and Tzivon while students were being dismissed from schools.
According to local security officials cited by the newspaper, authorities managing the response in real time were left “in the dark”, unable to determine the scope or direction of the barrage, or whether explosions heard were interceptions or direct impacts.
The move to disconnect local authorities from the system has triggered unusual anger among municipal and security officials across the Galilee and Golan Heights, who warned it could severely impair their ability to respond during missile attacks.
According to the report, access to the system was restricted over fears that information could leak to Iranian-linked actors monitoring precise impact locations and Israeli alert systems in an effort to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of future strikes.
Upper Galilee Regional Council head Assaf Langleben warned in a sharply worded letter to Home Front Command chief Maj Gen Shai Kleper of “operational blindness” caused by “deep frustration and shock over this arbitrary decision”.
“It is absurd that Hezbollah knows where it is firing, while we do not know and cannot deal with the incidents or carry out the responses required of us,” Langleben told the newspaper.
Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern also warned of the consequences, describing Shual as “a critical, life-saving tool”.
“Leaving us without it means abandoning even more lives in an area where most residents already lack protection,” Stern said. “Most of our residents are not protected, and now we are also not being given the ability to go out, rescue and save them during fire.”
A security official in Kiryat Shmona described conditions on the ground without the system as dangerous.
“During the latest sirens in Kiryat Shmona during the ceasefire, when interceptor fragments fell across the city, we operated like blind mice,” the official said.
“We saw with our own eyes how critical it is and how many lives it saved. When I do not have this tool, I do not know where to run. We are heading towards another round [of fighting], Hezbollah will again target our homes, and our residents will pay the price.”
Regional councils along the confrontation line also voiced frustration over what they described as a unilateral military decision made without prior coordination.
One security officer in a northern border community criticised the army’s handling of the issue, saying authorities should have addressed any information security concerns without shutting down access entirely.
“Instead of having a Home Front Command information security officer deal with the matter and plug the leak, they blocked it,” the official said.
“It may be true that the enemy sees and obtains information you do not want it to know. So disconnect all users, change passwords, restore it within three days and set confidentiality rules. But in the army, instead of dealing with how to stop leaks, they choose the easiest solution and close it off to everyone.”
The Israeli military said in response that access permissions and information layers in the civilian Shual system were “reviewed and updated from time to time” by authorised officials based on operational needs and information security considerations.
“The Shual system contains sensitive information, and during the war, cases were identified that required adjustments to procedures and reduced permissions in order to prevent harm to information security,” the military alleged.
The army added that the changes included shifting to “an alternative display method” allowing more precise access to relevant information for different organisations.
