Israel’s schools on Tuesday, 18 Shevat, will hold a national emergency preparedness exercise. The exercise is being conducted by the IDF Homefront Command and it will begin in selected schools at 10:00AM, simulating an earthquake. No sirens will sound as they wish to simulate an earthquake during school hours.

· Northern District: The Agamim School between 10:00AM -12:00PM

· Haifa District: The Faradis Makif School in Faradis between 10:00AM – 12:00PM

· Dan District: Yaakov Cohen School in Kiryat Ono between 10:00AM-12:00PM. IDF Homefront Commander Major-General Tamir Yedai will observe the drill at this location.

· Central District & Jerusalem: The Nachshon Junior High School in Modi’in and the Levona Junior High in Beit Aryeh-Ofarim between 10:00AM-12:00PM.

· Southern District: The Begin School in Dimona between 10:00AM-12:00PM.

Homefront Command officials will continue working with the Ministry of Education towards ensuring a system is in place that will permit children and staff to react to an emergency situation appropriately. The IDF spokesman stresses the drill was planned well in advance as part of the training events for 2017 and not due to any specific fear or warning at present.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)