Nationwide emergency drill peaks
Week-long Home Front Command emergency exercise to reach pinnacle point with two nationwide air raid sirens, drills simulating simultaneous mass-casualty events
The Home Front Command's week-long nationwide emergency drill – Turning Point 5 – is expected to peak Wednesday: two air raid sirens will sound across Israel at 11am and 7pm, urging Israelis across the countries to find their nearest shelter, where the HFC asks they stay for 10 minutes.
The drill will test all 3,100 air horns deployed across Israel. This is the first time such a drill involves two siren tests, as the Home Front Command aims to test public readiness both in the workplace and schools, as well as at home.
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The Home Front Command will assess the public's response to the drill in the following days. "Normally, such drills receive a 50%-55% response rate. Between the two sirens and the extensive media coverage for the drill, we hope to see the number grow," a military source said.
Turning Point 5 will see emergency services deal with various, simultaneous simulations of mass casualty events, such as a plane crash on a residential area, a head-on collision between a bus and a truck carrying hazardous materials, riots, the evacuation of hospitals and a full-fledges war-game.
Meanwhile, the cabinet will see its new underground 'atomic situation room' for the first time Tuesday, as part of the nationwide drill.
The secret bunker has been under construction for several years. Its exact location – somewhere under the Jerusalem mountains – is unknown.
The facility was built to withstand both conventional and unconventional missile strikes and sports state-of-the-art defense and communications technology.
Yossi Yehoshua and Yuval Karni contributed to this report
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