Following missile attacks from Iran that highlighted shortfalls in how rescue crews obtained building details at strike locations, Israeli scientists have created an artificial intelligence platform to supply first responders with building information almost immediately. This advance may greatly shorten the period required to reach people trapped in rubble.

The disorder of conflict, with structures toppled by Iranian ballistic missile impacts, highlighted the lack of immediate structural data for rescue crews in the field and spurred researchers to speed up ongoing work on national architectural archives.

The initiative was led by scholars from the Technion Housing Lab, among them Prof. Yael Allweil, Dr. Yiftach Ashkenazi, and architect Tal Sadeh, working with Prof. Moshe Lavee and Liat Bonen from the Elijah Lab at the University of Haifa.

In remarks to The Jerusalem Post, Allweil, an architecture professor at the Technion, noted that her group had spent years examining building permits, master plans, and other urban datasets until the conflict suddenly rendered their skills essential.

It came as a surprise to us as historians to find our work needed at this moment, she said.

Allweil explained that the Technion and University of Haifa project gained fresh priority during Operation Roaring Lion after overseas colleagues inquired about locating survivors in damaged structures and grasping layouts fast enough to support rescue efforts.

Iran launched thousands of missiles across Operation Rising Lion in June 2025 and Operation Roaring Lion in March 2026. The Tax Authority recorded 39,715 claims tied to Operation Rising Lion alone concerning homes struck by Iranian missiles. Rescue teams that depend on printed building permits from municipal files previously needed at least 30 minutes to enter a site safely.

Every city maintains an emergency war room, and when a building was struck staff would print the permit and dispatch it by courier to the scene for responders, she said. Responders required those documents before entry, a process that took roughly 30 minutes. Why not have the information in 30 seconds to judge conditions faster, especially with multiple sites involved?

Seeing the difficulty, Allweil and her colleagues started assembling a fresh dataset with tools they had created to interpret complex building records and then applied AI systems to query that information.

We understood the right questions and the possible uses, she said.

Because the IDF Home Front Command and municipalities often possessed separate data sets, the earlier system was disorganized, Allweil noted.

The new platform is a web application reached by link and assembled solely from public records. It lets rescuers view a building map, check whether apartments include shelters, and review individual plans with essential structural facts. The system supports any language and is intended for disaster response anywhere.

Understanding core building facts is vital for first responders, Allweil said.

The tool was built during the recent conflict and is now undergoing trials with Nahariya Municipality, where the city engineer assists in checking the platform.

Structures in Nahariya face repeated strikes, Allweil told the Post. Even with a current ceasefire with Iran in place, the aim is to improve the system and extend it to more cities.

Helping save lives keeps me highly driven, she said.