The major general in charge of the home front, Yair Golan, said Tuesday that the Israeli public is ready to deal with the threats facing it. Golan spoke on the Knesset's Channel 33 during this week's national emergency drill.
Sirens went off throughout the country at 10 A.M., and the Home Front's broadcasting station in Ramle was included in the exercise after having been established several months ago.
The broadcast also ran clips instructing people where they can best find cover at home, and children were told how to take cover if missiles strike.
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The Home Front Command and local authorities received reports on sirens that failed, with most of the complaints coming from rural areas. Home Front officials said all reports would be examined and any shortcomings fixed.
As the sirens wailed, pupils in schools and kindergartens were led to protected areas and bomb shelters, as were employees in municipalities and government ministries.
Home Front officials said their overall impression was that there were no major problems, but promised to evaluate the results in the coming days and fix any shortcomings.
During the exercise, rescue forces were flown to the Galilee to a mock disaster zone to practice rescuing victims from a collapsed building. Other rescue teams practiced a similar evacuation in Nazareth.
The exercise was set to continue Wednesday to simulate the rescue of wounded from collapsed structures on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa.
There will also be exercises for evacuating the elderly from their shelters in Sderot; other exercises will be carried out in Haifa Bay to simulate the containment of a dangerous-materials spill. More exercises will simulate dealing with areas struck by missiles bearing chemical warheads.
In Tel Aviv, the building that houses government offices was used to simulate missiles falling on the city. Dozens of civilians were evacuated from the offices and halls of the Population Census Directorate at the Interior Ministry and were taken to protected areas in the corridors of the building ¬ whose walls are built with reinforced steel and cement.
The people were cooperative and dozens of civilians waited in the protected areas for the 12 minutes the exercise lasted.
"The morning began normally at eight with the officials receiving the public," said Amos Arbel, head of the Interior Ministry's branch in Tel Aviv. "We did not inform the public about the exercise that was planned. I instructed the employees on what they were expected to do when the alarm sounded. They were told to shut the safe and put away all sensitive documents," he said.
"We led the people to the corridors of the building, which is the most reinforced area in terms of construction material. I am satisfied with the exercise's results. There was nothing unusual and there was no panic that we expected because of the crowds. The office was evacuated with 30 seconds."
The principal of the Savionim elementary school in Ma'alot, Shlomit Tze'elon, was ready for the alarm to sound. She had no doubts that the exercise would be successful and that the 350 pupils would fit in the school's two bomb shelters.
Her only concern was that the exercise would turn into the real thing. "The whole world knew that at 10 A.M. there would be an exercise, and I worried that someone would use this to make it a real emergency situation."
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