Israel Holds Civil Defense Drill amid Regional Tension
Some officials in Lebanon have expressed concern that Israel may use the civil defense exercise as a cover for a military strike
Amid simmering regional tensions, Israel is holding a dress rehearsal for disaster.
Israel is holding a big five-day civil-defense drill across the country aimed at preparing for the possibility of war. Soldiers, emergency crews and civilians are taking part in the exercise, which deals with the threat of massive rocket and missile attacks with conventional and non-conventional warheads.
The fourth annual drill is being conducted amid growing Israeli concerns about the re-armament of Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Iran's nuclear program.
The exercise has raised concern among Israel's enemies that the Jewish state is preparing for war, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies that is the case.
Mr. Netanyahu told the Cabinet it is a routine exercise and that Israel seeks quiet, stability and peace. But, he said, it is also "no secret that we live in a region that is under the threat of missiles and rockets."
Israel began the annual exercises after the Lebanon War in 2006, when Hezbollah fired 4,000 rockets across the border from Lebanon. The country was not prepared: bomb shelters and air raid sirens were in disrepair and civil-defense authorities were poorly trained.
In recent weeks, regional tensions have risen after Israel accused Syria of smuggling Scuds and other improved missiles to Hezbollah. And Israel is convinced that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Both Syria and Iran deny it, but Mr. Netanyahu said Israel remains on the alert.
The prime minister said the best defense against these threats is the strength of the Israeli army, which can deter Israel's enemies and win on the battlefield. But he said it is also important for the civilian population to be prepared.
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Photo by: Ariel Jerozolimski [file]
National Home Front drill begins
By JPOST.COM STAFF23/05/2010 09:33
IDF to test SMS warning system, distribute protective kits.
Local Israeli authorities, government offices, security organizations, the education system as well as public and private organizations were also set to participate in the exercise.
The drill, aimed at improving national readiness and responses of the home front to emergencies, was expected to improve cooperation between the various organizations and institutions and prepare them for different scenarios.
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The exercise, taking place for the fourth consecutive year, was scheduled and planned as a part of the IDF's 2010 training plan, and is an additional measure taken by Israel to prepare the public and the local authorities foremergency periods.
A 1.5-minute-long siren will be heard throughout the country on Wednesday, May 26 at 11 a.m. In addition, between June 25 and June 27, field training exercises will take place, simulating different scenarios. Additional sirens will be heard during these exercises.
The education system will also take part in the exercise. Students and teachers will simulate entering the designated secured areas.
This year the exercise will focus on the preparedness of the local authorities during emergencies. The exercise will replicate emergency scenarios in more than 30 local authorities throughout Israel in cooperation with the Home Front Command.
IDF to test SMS warning system, distribute protective kits
The IDF Spokesperson and the IDF Home Front Command ask the Israeli public to take part in the exercise and be aware of instructions given by the Home Front Command, by entering designated secured areas when the siren is sounded, and remaining there for ten minutes.
In addition, the IDF Home Front Command will practice distributing protective kits to the public during emergency periods. The distribution points will be opened for one day on May 26th in several locations; Safed, Yokneam, Tira, Tzur Hadassah, Rishon LeZion, Petah Tikva, Holon and the Reading Power Station in Tel Aviv. Residents of these cities will receive invitations in the mail.
During the exercise, all essential services, including hospitals, public transportation, conventions and public events will continue to work as usual.
The IDF asks that anyone who fails to hear the siren contact the Home Front Command Information Center at #1207.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=176180
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Israel Insists a Drill Is Just a Drill
By ISABEL KERSHNER and FARES AKRAM
JERUSALEM — As Israel embarked on a large-scale civil defense exercise on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to reassure Israelis and some jittery Arab neighbors that the nationwide drill was not meant to signal a deterioration in security or an imminent war.
"This is a routine exercise that has been scheduled for some time," Mr. Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. "I would like to make it clear that it is not the result of any exceptional security development. On the contrary, Israel aspires towards calm, stability and peace."
The five-day exercise, designed to test the readiness of citizens, the emergency services and local authorities in the case of war, is taking place for the fourth consecutive year. It comes amid growing concern in Israel about the rocket and missile capabilities of militant groups on its borders, and the potential threat of a nuclear Iran.
But the exercise appears to have rattled nerves in Lebanon, where Israel fought a month-long war against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, in 2006. Prime Minister Saad Hariri told reporters in Cairo on Saturday that "to launch military exercises at such a time runs counter to peace efforts" with the Palestinians.
Hezbollah's deputy head, Nabil Qaouk, said Friday that the military exercise was a sign of Israel's aggressive intentions and that Hezbollah had gone on alert. Mr. Qaouk was speaking during a meeting at his home in southern Lebanon with the Jewish American intellectual Noam Chomsky, a fierce critic of both of American and Israeli policy who was barred by Israel from entering the Israeli-occupied West Bank from Jordan last week.
The Israeli military said the drill will include the sounding of sirens throughout the country on Wednesday and will "replicate emergency scenarios" in more than 30 local authorities, in cooperation with the Home Front Command.
In Gaza, unidentified gunmen attacked the site of a United Nations children's summer camp before dawn on Sunday, burning empty water tanks and plastic sheds.
The Hamas government that rules the Palestinian enclave condemned the attack and said it had opened an investigation.
The beachside camp, which was still under construction, was set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides assistance to Palestinian refugees and their descendants. It was scheduled to open next month.
More than 20 masked militants were said to have taken part in the attack. The camp's guard, Ibrahim Eliwa, 37, said he was awake at 3 a.m. when he saw "an army of gunmen approaching the camp."
Mr. Eliwa was handcuffed. He said the gunmen tucked an envelope into his coat containing a letter and three bullets. "The letter carried threats to senior staff officials at UNRWA," he said.
John Ging, operations director of the United Nations agency, promised to rebuild the camp and said that the agency would not be intimidated.
"It is a disgraceful situation," he told reporters in Gaza. "There is no doubt in my mind that it is vandalism linked to a certain degree of extremism."
The agency has been running summer programs for the past five years for some 250,000 children who study in its schools in Gaza. Hamas, the Islamic militant group, has been running its own camps since it took over Gaza in 2007.
In the Hamas camps, strict, bearded men, sometimes waving sticks, teach children the basic tenets of Islam. In the more popular United Nations camps, children's activities have included painting, singing and swimming.
Last summer, Younis al-Astal, a Hamas lawmaker, accused the United Nations agency of "implementing a plan to spoil the growing generation of Gaza."
Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, and Fares Akram from Gaza.
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Netanyahu Says National Security Exercise Is 'Routine' Event
May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a nationwide security exercise aimed at improving readiness for emergencies and attack was "routine" and not a response to any "irregular security development."
"This is a routine exercise scheduled a long time ago," Netanyahu said, adding that such nationwide drills were Israel's best defense against rocket and missile attacks.
Netanyahu's comments, broadcast at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, were aimed at Israel's neighbors, particularly Lebanon. Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militia mobilized thousands of its gunmen in the southern part of the country, instructing them not to participate in municipal elections today and stand ready to confront Israeli maneuvers, group official Nabil Qaouk told Agence France Press on May 21.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri yesterday said the exercise ran counter to peace efforts, according to comments published in Lebanon's An Nahar newspaper.
In April, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of supplying the Hezbollah with Scuds, ground-to-ground missiles with a range of hundreds of miles and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the arms pose a threat to stability in Lebanon and the region. Syria has denied the allegations.
The Israeli exercise, which includes the military, emergency services, state-run employees and private organizations, starts today and runs through May 27. It is the fourth time Israel has conducted an exercise on this scale and will include a siren on May 26 to signal to the population to enter bomb shelters for 10 minutes.
--With assistance from Nayla Razzouk in Amman. Editors: James Kraus, Louis Meixler
To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
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