3.8-magnitude quake jostles north; no injuries or damage reported

A 3.8-magnitude earthquake rattled the north of the country, the Geological Survey of Israel said Wednesday, and was felt across a swath of locations, with residents reported shimmying furniture and swinging light fittings.

The quake occurred at 12:50 p.m. at a depth of 17 kilometers below the surface, said the institute, part of the Energy Ministry.

The Geological Survey pinpointed the epicenter as the northeastern corner of the Sea of Galilee.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The quake set off alerts in some communities in the Jordan Valley region, the local municipal authority said.

Oded Moskovitz, a resident of Tiberias, told the Ynet news outlet that he was at work when he saw a bottle of mineral water moving, “and I immediately understood it was an earthquake. That was scary.”

Moskovitz said his wife was at home and felt dizzy but the family’s dogs did not start barking.

As a veteran resident of the city, Moskovitz said he is accustomed to quakes, describing this one as “short and powerful.”

Revital Golan Haggai, from Hadera, told Ynet that she was working from home on the sixth floor of a building and the entire structure shook.

“The building suddenly started to shake, really moved from side to side. The lights in the ceiling swayed and all the furniture moved. It was lucky nothing broke.”

Batel Ben David from Hatzor HaGlilit estimated the quake lasted about ten seconds.

“I thought I was going dizzy,” she told the outlet. “The whole table shook.”

Israeli experts have long been warning that the region is overdue for a major tremor and that the country is woefully unprepared.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman also warned in September that Israel has failed in its efforts to prepare for a major earthquake,

He said a quake at the time in Morocco and another last year that killed more than 50,000 in Turkey and Syria were a “painful reminder” of Israel’s need to be ready for major seismic activity.

The head of the government’s earthquake preparedness committee warned lawmakers in February 2023 that the large cities were not fully prepared for a major earthquake. An earlier comptroller report found there were 600,000 buildings in the country that do not meet the standard for earthquake resistance.

The last major earthquake to hit the region was in 1927 — a 6.2-magnitude tremor that killed 500 people and injured 700 — and seismologists estimate that such earthquakes occur in the area approximately once every 100 years.

Tel Aviv University researchers published a study in 2020 warning that such an earthquake, large enough to cause hundreds of fatalities, will likely hit the country in the coming years.