When thousands of buildings require rebuilding from scratch, this is a golden opportunity for creating a new building standard.
ByJEHUDA HADDAD AUGUST 12, 2025
Approximately 39,000 structures were damaged during the Iran-Israel War. Thousands of residential units were demolished, and tens of thousands of damage restitution claims have been submitted. Nevertheless, behind this harsh data, there is a hidden historic opportunity that must not be overlooked: the transformation of the restoration process into a means of leveraging the promotion of advanced green construction also in response to urgent 21st-century challenges.
The traditional approach to postwar restoration focuses on returning the property to its former condition. However, this time, we must think differently, beyond the mere replacement of a stone with another stone. When thousands of buildings require rebuilding from scratch, this is a golden opportunity for creating a new building standard, one that combines advanced shielding with principles of environmental sustainability.
In cities like Tel Aviv (in which over 26,000 claims were submitted) or Ashkelon (with over 12,300 claims), it is possible to redesign entire neighborhoods. This is a chance to overcome crowding, to create green areas, and to construct buildings that are suited to the Israeli climate.
Smart construction
All the new construction must resolve two primary challenges: both the security threat and the climate crisis. Naturally, secure residential spaces and shielded safe rooms are necessary, but they should be planned in accordance with green construction systems, with advanced thermal insulation, renewable energy systems, rainwater catchment, and green roofs.
In the southern cities, like Beersheba, there is a critical need for shade; it is possible to plan buildings with shaded porches, inner gardens, and natural greenery that reduces the temperature. In the cooler North of Israel, it is possible to promote ecological heating systems.
The government must formulate a national rehabilitation plan based on the principles of green construction. In other words, the building contractors must be incentivized to use advanced technologies, obliged to install solar panels, to plan rainwater catchment systems, and to create green public areas adjacent to each rehabilitation project.
Instead of rebuilding homes and apartments that will needlessly waste valuable energy and require intensive air-conditioning, we can create buildings that produce their own energy and have natural cooling, while reducing air pollution. Such buildings would not only save money in the long run but would contribute to our national fortitude when facing future energy crises.
The time to act
The destruction caused by the Iran-Israel War is a tragedy, but it is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Rather than rebuilding the old houses that have not withstood the test of time, we can grow anew and create an advanced construction model, one which will serve as an inspiration to the Middle East and the entire world.
Green rehabilitation is not merely an environmental responsibility – it is an investment in our future and that of our children.
The government must seize this historic moment to devise a rehabilitation plan that will transform the ruins of those structures and infrastructures into the green hope for the coming generations.
The writer is the rector and founder of SCE, the Shamoon College of Engineering.