26/05/2010 Sirens will go off at 11 A.M. Wednesday throughout the Zionist entity and Israelis will be asked to head for the nearest shelter or safe room, as part of a massive drill meant to test national preparedness. But no matter how ready Israelis prove themselves to be, the Zionist entity is still not equipped to handle a chemical attack, according to a senior Israeli army officer, who says there is a shortage of gas masks.
Col. Hilik Sofer, who heads the Home Front Command's population division, warned that Israel "is at a low level of preparedness for the chemical threat, due to the distribution of gas masks. So far, we've distributed over 300,000 gas masks, but this must be improved."
Altogether, only 5 percent of Israelis currently have gas masks, Home Front Command officers explained. And while the command has prepared a plan to distribute masks to everyone in the Zionist entity within a few weeks if an emergency arises, it so far only has enough masks for 60 percent of the population.
The siren, an alternately rising and falling wail, will sound for a minute and a half. While settlers have no legal obligation to cooperate with the drill, surveys conducted by the Home Front Command found that last year some 40 percent did. This year, it hopes the rate will exceed 50 percent.
However, the Israeli occupation army said, anyone on the roads should keep driving rather than stopping for the siren.
In addition to the 11 A.M. siren, sirens will sound at various other times in dozens of settlements in order to test the siren system.
The drill, code-named "Turning Point 4," also includes dozens of exercises in rescuing trapped or wounded settlers, evacuating them from zones under rocket fire and temporarily resettling them in safer areas.
But most of these exercises, which will take place Wednesday and Thursday, are scheduled for isolated areas and should not disrupt traffic. The biggest ones will take place at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, the Ashdod Port and army headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The command is also working on a system to identify where a missile is likely to hit and notify settlers of the affected area only, so that other Israelis can continue their normal routine.
One thing the Israeli command is not happy about is the Education Ministry's decision to hold standardized math assessment tests in some 600 schools today - meaning students in those schools will not practice fleeing their classrooms for a safe room. Itai Benjamin, who heads the national parents' council, was also unhappy, telling Army Radio that the ministry could just as easily have held the exam a few days earlier or later.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak stressed Tuesday that the drill does not reflect an assessment that war is likely anytime soon, but said it was necessary for Israel to be prepared if it occurs.
Also on Tuesday, US National Guard commander Gen. Craig McKinley met with Israeli army Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and OC Home Front Command Yair Golan.
McKinley was in the Zionist entity to watch the drill and to study Home Front Command lessons learned from the 2006’s Second Lebanon War and last winter’s Operation Cast Lead.
Meanwhile, Kadima MK Avi Dichter told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the Iron Dome missile defense system should be deployed as soon as it is operational.
The former public security minister and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director said the Israeli army was taking too long to deploy the system, considering the mounting rocket threats from Hamas in the South and from Hezbollah in the North.
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