The Defense Ministry in cooperation with the Health Ministry and IDF Homefront Command will be staging a major mock disaster drill in Tel Aviv next week, a drill simulating a biological attack with over 1,000 victims. The drill will be a major barometer of the ability of the three agencies to work with one another. The ministry states the drill will not have any major impact on the lives of area residents, but it may result in a noticeable increase in activity in area emergency rooms.

The drill will take place on Wednesday and Thursday (13 and 14 January), and it will primarily test the abilities of three major hospitals, Tel Hashomer, Ichilov and Wolfson, which will accept the victims. There will also be three major staging stations, the Country Club in Holon, Winter Stadium in Ramat Gan and Beit Danny in Tel Aviv. According to Brigadier-General Ze’ev Shnir, the exercise is to focus on the nation’s ability to cope with a biological attack.

Shnir explains the biological threat is one of the threats faced by the nation, and it is incumbent upon the system to evaluate its abilities against this threat.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)