Israel will hold its seventh annual “Turning Point” civil defense drill next week. Israeli civilians face a unique security environment. When under missile attack by Iranian proxies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, the most time any Israeli civilian anywhere in the country has to reach a shelter is three minutes. When civilians living in the north are attacked by Hezbollah or civilians in the south are attacked by Hamas, there are often less than 10 seconds to find safety.

Israel has recently been struck by missiles or gunfire fired by: Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Salafists operating in the Sinai Peninsula, the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, and anti-Assad jihadists in the Golan Heights. The Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon has tens of thousands of missiles, including advanced missiles, aimed at Israel.

Part of the drill is designed to prepare Israeli civilians for inevitable rocket barrages during a war:

Head of the Home Front Command Maj. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg said Tuesday that the outbreak of a war in which Israel would be hit with a “large volume of rocket fire” was a certainty. “Our opponents hold long-range missiles with large warheads and a carrying capacity of hundreds of pounds,” he said.

There are, however, more severe scenarios being prepared for:

The Home Front Command on Wednesday was preparing for a massive military drill next week, to focus on coping with chemical weapons attacks. The nationwide exercise will drill the civilian population as well as military and emergency services… Damascus’s large stockpile of chemical weapons, and President Bashar Assad’s refusal to sign international accords banning them, has become a major international concern as the civil war in Syria rages on.

The Home Front Command on Wednesday was preparing for a massive military drill next week, to focus on coping with chemical weapons attacks. The nationwide exercise will drill the civilian population as well as military and emergency services.

On Monday, two air raid sirens are scheduled – one in the early afternoon and another in the evening – at which time all citizens will be instructed to go to shelters and wait there for ten minutes. In addition to sirens, the Home Front Command will also test the sending of threat alerts via “cellphones, social networks and television.” In advance of the drill, commercials are raising awareness by reminding citizens to “know where your protective space is.”

[Photo: Israel Defense Forces / Wiki Commons]