Surprise Nationwide Military Drill

An IDF and Homefront drill took hundreds of thousands of reservists by surprise early Monday morning as they received messages to report for an emergency exercise, without prior notification.

The drill simulating rocket attacks from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, as well as cyber attacks, was set to continue into Wednesday in what a senior officer described as “the army’s largest surprise drill in recent years.”

Members of the reserves — from the air, land and sea branches, as well as the Home Front Command— began receiving automated messages starting at 8:00 a.m. Although most of those contacted were only required to acknowledge the call, thousands were ordered to report to mobilization points in uniform.

The public was told to expect an unusually high volume of security vehicle traffic on the  roadways.

Also on Monday, the Home Front Command will be holding rescue drills at sites simulating wartime emergencies in Holon and Neurim.

The exercises were scheduled for a number of locations, including the new Tel Aviv central bus station, the Tel Aviv municipality square, the Shivat Hakochavim mall in Herzliya, the Begin School in Beit Shemesh, and the Yehuda Halevi school in Yerushalayim.

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the July 28th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.