Nation-Wide Drill to Test Preparedness for Rocket Attack on Israel

Residents in the South view bomb shelter donated by United with Israel. (UWI)

Israeli citizens across the country will practice rushing to shelters as part of an annual Home Front Command drill to test preparedness for a variety of scenarios, including rocket and missile attacks, acts of terror and attacks on strategic infrastructure.

Rocket-warning sirens will blare throughout Israel Tuesday as the country’s citizens take part in a nation-wide emergency drill. Home Front Command will sound the sirens at 11:05 AM and 7:05 PM as part of a five-day exercise by the Israeli military and rescue services, named “Turning Point 15,” to ensure readiness for a variety of attacks.

The sirens are intended to give Israelis an opportunity to ensure that they are able to reach a safe location in the event of a rocket or missile attack, whether by Hezbollah in Lebanon or Syria, by Hamas in Gaza, or by Islamists in the Sinai. The morning siren is meant to give children practice in evacuating to their schools’ shelters. The evening siren will give families the opportunity to check their preparedness at home.

Residents in the center of the country, including the populous metropolitan areas of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, have one and half minutes after the sirens sound to reach shelter. Israelis living along the borders with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria have 15 seconds or less. Drill sirens will not sound in communities near Gaza after those communities indicated that it would be too nerve-racking following last summer’s war.

Israeli first responders practice for an unconventional weapons attack while US officials watch. (Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy/FLASH90)

In parallel, the IDF will conduct drills for attacks on strategic targets in cooperation with the Israel Police, Magen David Adom and Fire and Rescue Services. These drills include potential attacks on Ben Gurion Airport and the seaports in Ashdod and Haifa, a mass-casualty terror attack in Jerusalem, and a cyber attack that takes down the electric and phone grids. A new emergency text-messaging system will also be put to the test.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Sunday, at the commencement of Turning Point 15, saying, “Alongside the development of our offensive capabilities, which is in a very impressive high gear, most of which is known to the public, we are also busy with preparing the home front for future campaigns because we have discovered that that home front is a front line. There has been very great success; we saw this in Operation Protective Edge and at other times, in developments that we have made in both active and passive defense. Adequate preparation is important because planning well will pay off in the end.”

Home Front Command has conducted the Turning Point drill annually since 2007 in order to prepare for the most pressing threats facing Israel. Rockets and missiles continue to represent a major danger. The IDF revealed last month that Hezbollah possesses an arsenal of 100,000 projectiles concealed under civilian communities in southern Lebanon, including missiles capable of hitting anywhere in Israel. Hamas is currently paving a road along the Gaza-Israel border for the stated purpose of facilitating attacks in the next round of conflict.

By: Sara Abramowicz, United with Israel

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