Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has approved a special budget to fortify close
to a dozen critical national infrastructure facilities to protect them against
missile attacks in a war, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The prime
minister made the announcement during a presentation the Home Front Command gave
him earlier this month. Critical infrastructure includes gas, water and
electricity.
The amount of the funds approved was not
disclosed.
“We are not where we need to be in our protection of critical
infrastructure,” a senior IDF officer told the Post on Thursday.
The IDF
is also working to improve the defenses of privately owned factories that
contain large amounts of ammonia which, if leaked, could endanger population
centers throughout the country.
During Operation Cast Lead, for example,
the government was close to ordering the evacuation of a city in the South after
an ammonia tanker was damaged and started leaking. The government ultimately
decided not to do so after the leak was quickly repaired.
As a result,
the Home Front Command is installing cameras and sensors to immediately detect
if such a leak occurs.
The sensors would then be connected to the Home
Front Command’s Operations Center, where the IDF would be able to learn about
such damage in real time.
The army recently conducted an analysis of what
would happen to the home front in a war. The predictions, widely reported in the
media, are that hundreds of civilians could be killed by enemy
missiles.
The analysis was based on missile attacks against Israel during
the First Gulf War in 1990-91, the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and Operation Cast Lead in 2009, as well as on the type of missiles
and rockets now in the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza
Strip.
The research included an analysis of the damage that could be
inflicted on infrastructure in the home front.
The IDF believes that
during a war, Hezbollah will try to hit military targets with its long-range
rockets but would then shift its focus to infrastructure.