Israel Conducts Civil Defense Drill

Israeli authorities were scheduled today to begin an exercise simulating a chemical weapons strike against a school and a rocket attack on a power station in Tel Aviv, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 30, 2006).

Thousands of police officers and soldiers are expected to participate in the two-day event, the country’s largest civil defense drill.

It is intended to show that authorities have gleaned lessons from the summer 2006 war with Hezbollah, which fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel. 

The rockets killed 39 Israeli civilians, according to authorities.  Critics have charged the military with failing to provide adequate protection against the rockets, according to AP.

“We are demonstrating through such an exercise the lessons we learned in the past war,” said Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Gershon, head of the Israeli Home Front Command.

Up to 1,191 civilians and fighters died in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.  Israel counts its combat deaths at 120 (Associated Pres/Yahoo!News, March 20).

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