2026

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

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. 

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — A strong earthquake rattled southern and central Mexico on Friday, interrupting President Claudia Sheinbaum ’s first press briefing of the new year as seismic alarms sounded.

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 and its epicenter was near the town of San Marcos in the southern state of Guerrero near the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, according to Mexico ’s national seismological agency.

The state’s civil defense agency reported various landslides around Acapulco and on other highways in the state.

Residents and tourists in Mexico City and Acapulco rushed into the streets when the shaking began.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake occurred at a depth of 21.7 miles (35 kilometers), 2.5 miles north-northwest of Rancho Viejo, Guerrero, which is in the mountains about 57 miles northeast of Acapulco.

Sheinbaum, who resumed her press briefing a short time later, said she spoke with Guerrero’s Gov. Evelyn Salgado, who told her there was no serious damage reported.

José Raymundo Díaz Taboada, a doctor and human rights defender who lives on one of the peaks ringing Acapulco, said he heard a strong rumble noise and all the neighborhood dogs began barking.

“In that moment the seismic alert went off on my cell phone,” he said, “and then the shaking began to feel strong with a lot of noise.”

He said the shaking was lighter than in some previous quakes and he had prepared a backpack of essentials to be ready to leave as the aftershocks continued.

He said he had been unable to reach some friends who live along the Costa Chica southeast of Acapulco because communications were cut.

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