'We Can't Sleep, We Can't Work': Tel Aviv Residents Speak Out on the Summer Heat Crisis

Three consecutive nights above 34 degrees Celsius. That is what residents of Shapira and Florentin reported this week, as Tel Aviv logged its hottest opening to July since the Israel Meteorological Service began keeping digital records in 1994. The municipal cooling centres opened by Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality on July 1 have been overwhelmed, with some locations turning people away by midday.

The timing matters because July 4 marks the midpoint of what forecasters at the IMS are calling a "multi-dome" heatwave — a sustained high-pressure system trapping heat across the eastern Mediterranean through at least July 9. Israel Electric Corporation has already issued two "red load" warnings this week, urging customers to cut consumption between 17:00 and 21:00. For families in older rental apartments along HaAliyah Street who have no air conditioning units, that request carries a dark irony.

Cooling Centres Stretched, Neighbourhoods Left Waiting

The municipality operates 14 designated cooling centres across the city, including branches of the Shaar Zion Community Centre on Menachem Begin Road and the Beit Ariela public library on Shaul HaMelech Boulevard. Both reported capacity issues by Tuesday afternoon. A volunteer with the Lev HaIr neighbourhood association, which has been distributing fans and ice packs in the Kerem HaTeimanim quarter since Monday, said demand this week was running roughly double what the group handled during the July 2023 heatwave.

Residents in the Neve Sha'anan neighbourhood — home to a large community of migrant workers and asylum seekers, many of whom live in dense, poorly ventilated housing — described conditions that several characterised as unbearable. One woman, a home-care worker in her fifties who rents a single room near the Central Bus Station on Levinski Street, said her landlord has refused to install air conditioning despite written requests made in May. "We open the window and hot air comes in. We close it and we suffocate," she told a reporter from The Daily Tel Aviv on Thursday. "There is nowhere to go."

Electricity costs are compounding the pressure. The Israel Electric Corporation implemented a 7.9 percent tariff increase in January 2026, and consumer groups say average household bills in Tel Aviv have climbed to approximately 650 shekels per month during summer months — up from roughly 520 shekels in summer 2024. For renters on minimum wage, running an air conditioner through the night can add 200 shekels or more to a monthly bill.

What the City Says — and What Residents Want

The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality announced Thursday that it would extend cooling centre hours at seven locations until midnight through July 9, and that the Sportech sports complex on Shderot Rokach would open its indoor facilities free of charge on weekends. The municipality's heat emergency protocol, updated in 2025, also activates welfare checks for residents over 75 — an estimated 38,000 people in the city — through the Matav social services network.

Community organisers in Shapira say that is not enough. The Shapira Residents Forum, which formed in 2022 to fight gentrification pressures in the neighbourhood, submitted a formal letter to Deputy Mayor Meital Lehavi's office this week demanding that the city open at least four additional 24-hour cooling sites south of the Ayalon highway before the weekend. They have not received a response.

Practically speaking, residents without air conditioning should note that Beit Ariela library remains open until 22:00 Sunday through Thursday and until 14:00 on Fridays. The municipality's heatwave hotline — 106 — is staffed around the clock. And the IMS forecast currently shows temperatures dropping below 30 degrees at night only from July 10 onward. That is still six days away.