Israel 'lacks ways to combat possible chemical attack'

"We still don't have the best response for a chemical threat, we're not where we want to be, but in a few years will be able to offer a much better answer," Home Front Command Chief Major-General Yair Golan said Wednesday.

Golan, who held a press briefing on the Home Front Command's nationwide emergency drill, reiterated the cabinet's decision to refit Israeli citizens with atomic, biological, and chemical (ABC) protection kits, calling it "the right decision, given that an emergency situation can happen out of the blue."

The defense establishment, he added, is currently reviewing the best way to proceed in the matter: "I assume that as we collect (the ABC kits), we will manufacture more of them as well, until we get to a point that every citizen has an updated kit… we probably won't wait for our repositories to be filled and start redistributing them before that.

"This won't happen in a day or two," added Golan. "We will be implementing a perennial work plan spanning three to five years."

Israel emergency services have advanced equipment at their disposal, which will enable them to minimize casualties and purify areas, should a chemical terror threat materialize, said Golan, adding he believed sealed room and apartmental protected spaces can give citizens reasonable protection.

Knowledge is power

The Home Front Command, said Golan, is satisfied with the way the nationwide drill had been progressing so far. State authorities and local facilities have been applying the directions, as evident by the siren drill which took place on Tuesday in schools across Israel.

Golan further noted that despite the criticism, over 90% of Israeli municipalities took an active part in the drill: "We were criticized for the drill causing undue panic, and of course any such drill will have its disadvantages, but they're outweighed by the advantages… A drill like that gives civilians all the knowledge necessary to deal with an emergency situation."

Drill's mock mass casualty event site (Photo: Yaron Brener)

Tuesday morning saw mock sirens wail throughout Israel – 1,500 of them to be exact. The Home Front Command received 219 complaints from citizens claiming not to hear the sirens, but Golan noted that 136 of them were from citizens who were inside buildings at the time.

Try as it may, the Home Front Command cannot make sure every single person hears the sirens: "Some people are in skyscrapers or (in surroundings) muffled by air conditioners, which is why we're devising as wide a siren spread as possible," he said, noting that several hundred new horns are scheduled to be installed across Israel by the end of the year, and the siren array as a whole will be revamped.

Future drills may see the Home Front Command get civilians more involved, concluded Golan, but in any case "the civilian population benefits greatly from such drills, which give them the necessary tolls to handle an emergency situation more effectively."