Special delivery to Arab sector: 10,000 gas masks
In first of its kind, on Wednesday, Home Front Command will distribute thousands of gas mask kits in villages of Wadi Ara, instead of its residents having to travel to another city to obtain a kit. Additionally, training focusing on what to do in emergency situations will be expanded: 'There is a thirst for knowledge'
At the IDF Home Front Command, they estimate that few in the Arab sector have collected gas mask kits and they are acting to change the situation: On Wednesday, soldiers will distribute more than 10,000 kits in a special operation focused on Arab citizens in Kfar Qara and Baka al-Gharbia in Wadi Ara.
A senior Home Front Command officer told Ynet that this was the first operation of its kind, and was being held in collaboration with local authorities. In it, IDF soldiers would go to Arab communities and distribute the kits directly to the citizens. To date, Arab residents who wanted to obtain gas mask kits were forced to go to the post office in a nearby city.
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“From what we know, very few in the Arab sector have protective kits, and this is an issue that was at the head of priorities raised by Arab mayors at a special meeting we held with them recently," the senior officer said. The Home Front Command hopes that the campaign will encourage more than 100,000 Arabs in the Wadi Ara area to visit the distribution points at their local post offices and stock up on the kits.
Cooperation between the Home Front Command and the Arab sector has developed especially in recent years, mainly due to Hezbollah rockets hitting the settlements during the Lebanon war and causing dozens of injuries.
Within this framework, a volunteer command unit operates in the village of Abu Gosh near Jerusalem and in Arab villages in the north, workshops are held for groups of civilians, in coordination with the local security officer, to enable them to provide emergency first responses until the arrival of rescue forces.
In this context, the officer noted the nationwide emergency exercise held two weeks ago and said, "All the sirens in Arab municipalities in the Haifa District worked well in the practice." In addition, he said, last year, Home Front Command soldiers visited fifth grade classes in Umm Al-Fahm, and along with local teachers, showed students how to act during an emergency.
"These students then go home and explain to their parents what a protected space is, and what to do when a siren goes off,” the officer said. “There is a great thirst for knowledge on this subject in the Arab sector."
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