The Home Front Command on Tuesday held a nationwide drill simulating simultaneous terror attacks in different places across the country.
A 90-second air raid siren was sounded in southern and central Israel,
for the first time in such a drill.
The Home Front Command decided not to sound the siren in northern Israel and in the Gaza vicinity, in order not to cause panic.
The Israel Police and all security and rescue forces – including Magen David Adom and fire brigades – as well as the government offices and some local authorities took part in the drill.
Drill in Sderot (Photo: Amir Cohen)
The drill was temporarily halted in the center of Israel Tuesday morning after security forces received a warning on terrorists' plans to carry out a terror attack. Road 2 was blocked for traffic
in the Sharon region, north of Tel Aviv, and large police forces were dispatched to the area.
In Ramat Gan, police simulated an attack by two terrorists on a school. In Be'er Sheva rescue services simulated a chemical terror attack.
Southern District Commander, Major-General Uri Bar-Lev said at the end of the drill, "These are only part of the incidents we are simulating. Our final goal is to cause all emergency forces to work in a more efficient way in order to save lives. This evening we will begin the inquiry stage in order to learn what requires improvement."
Hundreds of police officers, fire brigades and Magen David Adom teams were dispatched to the streets of Be'er Sheva as part of a drill, while a police helicopter supervised the activity from the air.
As part of the drill, security forces simulated the landing of dozens of Qassam rockets on a Sderot school, causing a large number of casualties.
"We are familiar with this incident from our daily routine in Sderot and this is not new to us. Therefore, the forces were prepared and dealt with the incident in the best way possible," said Major-General Bar-Lev.
Another incident simulated Tuesday was Palestinian prisoners' riots in Ashkelon's Shikma Prison, where many Hamas members involved in firing rockets at the area are jailed.
Vered Luvitch and Shmulik Hadad contributed to the report
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