Last week, the Home Front Command, led by Rafi Milo, conducted the “Firm Hand” exercise, simulating a multi-front conflict, during which the Air Force drilled, among other things, strikes on targets in Iran.
According to the scenario, in response to the attacks, missiles will be fired at Israel from Iran and by pro-Iranian Shiite militias from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, with most of the hits being in the northern areas and Haifa. All of this will likely be accompanied by violent disturbances within Israel.
The Home Front Command drilled a scenario in which, as a result of the range of rocket, missile and heavy warhead fire, about a hundred civilians would be killed on the homefront and about a thousand would be wounded.
In such a scenario, emergency services would be faced with more than a thousand sites of destruction, including 500 in serious condition, in addition to about 2,000 residents without a response in open areas. The scenario also included damage to the electricity and water infrastructure, IDF bases and population centers.
“We practiced an extreme scenario and we are preparing for it with the utmost seriousness,” said a security official. “The ability to generate fire on the home front, from multiple focal points, on such a large scale produces a large number of disaster scenes and a scale of destruction that Israel has not experienced since the establishment of the state.”
The IDF conducts the “Firm Hand” exercise drilling a multi-front conflict scenario. (Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
The source explained that such a scenario would harm the functional continuity of the country, partially due to power outages.
“We saw what happened a week and a half ago when there was no electricity in half the country.”
The source even said that such a scenario would result in a proliferation of sites of destruction and deaths on the home front on a scale that Israel has never known.
“We will face challenges of various kinds such as personnel not reporting to essential sites due to the fear of missile fire and destruction, such as hospital workers, pharmacies, drivers, and workers in infrastructure companies, and this will harm the functional continuity of the economy.”
The defense system explained that a situation was drilled in which the air defense system would be radically challenged. The data on the interceptions themselves and the scope of the threats from the various arenas have been kept secret, however, the data on the scope of the fire from Lebanon, which would include about 3,000 rockets in the first few days, was published.
In the “Firm Hand” exercise, a new capability called “Cell Broadcast” was integrated, which will allow the Home Front Command to send warning messages to citizens against missile and rocket threats, even without the user having downloaded the Home Front Command application. Also, the messages will be sent to the citizen in the language in which the user operates the device.
Home Front Command drills evacuating civilians in wartime
Walla was informed that the Home Front Command also practiced evacuating civilians from 50 settlements within a range of up to five kilometers to reception centers. In addition, a drill was carried out for those with special needs, in addition to ventilated patients and those with various disabilities from the town of Shlomi to reception facilities belonging to the Health Ministry.
In the debriefing after the exercise, the issue of a lack of shelters in the north was raised again. It was also decided to establish headquarters for the Home Front Command under which soldiers who are not serving the war effort will work to assist in providing welfare, medical and food aid to the population in the major evacuee centers, including the Arava, the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and Eilat.
As part of the debriefing, it also emerged that there is a scenario of a mass evacuation of citizens from the north to the south, and therefore, a proposal was submitted to Defense Minister Yoav Galant for a program under which citizens who evacuate independently in their own vehicles would receive state aid to finance their stay in guesthouses and hotels.
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