THE BIGGEST civil defence drill in Israel’s history got under way yesterday as the country’s leaders denied it was directly linked with tensions over what Jerusalem believes is Iran’s drive to obtain a nuclear bomb.
During the five-day exercise more than 250 regional “crisis rooms” will respond to a variety of simulated emergencies.
Tomorrow sirens will sound across the country and Israelis will be required to enter the nearest bomb shelter or secure room. For the first time the Home Front command is trying out new technology to warn citizens via SMS messages to cell phones of incoming missile strikes.
Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting yesterday, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu denied the drill, codenamed “Turning Point 3”, was a response to specific intelligence information or aimed at a specific regional country, despite the repeated warnings from Jerusalem that Israel will not tolerate a nuclear Iran.
“We are required to defend Israel, its cities and various installations, from the possibility of attacks by missiles, rockets or other weapons,” he said. “I think the fact that Israel is preparing more from exercise to exercise and is capable of better protecting its citizens decreases the chance that we’ll have to use these tools.”
This is the third consecutive year that Israel has held a nationwide civil defence exercise.
During the second Lebanon war in 2006, Hizbullah militants fired almost 4,000 rockets into Israel.During the recent war in Gaza, Palestinian gunmen launched 900 rockets into southern Israel.
A government inquiry into the 2006 war found civil defence measures to be woefully inadequate. Many bomb shelters were used for storage or had not been cleaned for years.
Deputy defence minister Matan Vilna’i said Israel must be prepared for any eventuality.
“The potential threat for what we are drilling exists in surrounding Arab countries. The question is whether they will use it and when”, Mr Vilna’i said.
“As opposed to the past, we are not afraid to involve the entire population. We have nothing to hide and don’t want to scare anyone, but it is our obligation to prepare the home front and the public for the various emergency scenarios.”
Some 70 officials from abroad were in Israel to observe the drill, which will include simulated evacuation of high-rise buildings and key factories, and moving large numbers of people to underground car parks.
The exercise will also include responding to a non-conventional missile strike and a simulated emergency cabinet meeting.
As the drill got under way, both the Lebanese army and Hizbullah fighters went on full alert amidst fears that the exercise was a cover for a surprise Israeli attack.
Meanwhile, the most serious showdown in two years between Palestinian Authority security forces and Hamas militants occurred in the West Bank yesterday as troops loyal to moderate president Mahmoud Abbas killed two leading Hamas fugitives.
Three policemen and a passerby were also killed in the firefight that erupted after the police surrounded the hideout of Mohammed al-Samman, the Hamas military commander in the northern West Bank and his deputy in the town of Qalkilya.
The clash came only three days after Mr Abbas, who is also leader of Fatah, the bitter rivals of Hamas, promised US president Barack Obama, at a White House meeting, that the Palestinians will fulfill their obligations under the roadmap peace plan to crack down on armed gunmen.
The Palestinian Authority launched a campaign against Hamas activists in the West Bank two years ago after the Islamic group seized control of the Gaza Strip.
Over recent months Palestinian forces, trained by the US in Jordan, have deployed at various locations throughout the West Bank.
** Ephraim Katzir, Israel’s fourth president and a biophysicist who co-founded its militarys science corps, died at the weekend aged 93.
Katzir was elected president in 1973, assuming the largely ceremonial post four months before the outbreak of war with Egypt and Syria.