Tel Aviv and Jerusalem residents complained Tuesday that they were unable to hear the sirens that wailed across the country at 10 A.M. as part of Israel's largest ever civilian defense drill.
Schoolchildren and government workers ran for air raid shelters when the sirens sounded as part of the nationwide exercise. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said that the authorities would learn from the weaknesses revealed by the drill.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak assembled the new National Emergency Authority on Monday as part of the Home Front preparedness exercise being conducted this week throughout the country.
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As part of the drill, known as Turning Point 2 (Nekudat Mifne 2), the siren sounded for a minute and a half. There was no alarm sounded for the drill in Sderot and the rest of the communities bordering Gaza.
Before the warning sirens sound, the Home Front Command inaugurated its new broadcast studio in the command's Ramle headquarters with a live TV broadcast on Channel 33 on proper emergency procedures.
As the sirens sounded, school and nursery school children were taken to the closest shelters, to spend an hour learning about emergency procedures. Government employees will also be expected to man their posts in shelters and protected rooms.
All local authorities were to undertake drills, based on different scenarios provided by the Home Front Command. In the afternoon there will be emergency exercises in Nazareth and the Northern Galilee, to practice rescuing survivors from buildings hit by missiles.
The National Emergency Authority, which was established last September in the wake of findings on the functioning of the home front during Second Lebanon War, will be in charge of directing the drill and controlling home-front security forces. This is the first drill headed by the Authority, and will help to define the boundaries of its responsibilities and the interface between the different elements and commanders responsible for the home-front security.
Barak spoke at the meeting Monday morning, saying the decision to hold the five-day exercise did not mean that war is anticipated in the near future.
Rather, he said the drill should be seen as part of the country's response to lessons learned from the Second Lebanon War. "The State of Israel has no interest in escalating the situation in the region." He said the goal of the exercise is to learn and raise the level of preparedness. He said the local authorities have a critical role in the public's ability to withstand an attack on the home front.
