Home Front launches campaign to teach citizens how to choose secure room in their homes

Campaign to culminate in a nationwide exercise including entire population.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Sderot shelter 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
Sderot shelter 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
With Kassam rockets continuing to fall in the South and the possibility of conflict with Hizbullah and Iran looming on the horizon, the IDF Home Front Command will kick off a nationwide campaign on Thursday aimed at teaching Israelis how to choose a secure room in their homes. The campaign will culminate in a nationwide exercise that will, for the first time, include the entire population. The exercise - called Turning Point 3 - will be the third home front exercise to be held since the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and the founding the National Emergency Administration (NEA) in the Defense Ministry, which is responsible for setting national emergency standards. Turning Point 1 was held in the summer of 2007 and drilled the IDF, Israel Police, Fire Department, Home Front Command and other emergency-related organizations. The second drill, held earlier this year, included all the above as well as the various government ministries. The third drill, which will be held in June, will include all of the emergency organizations, all of the government ministries as well as the entire civilian population, an IDF source said Wednesday. "People will be asked to choose protective rooms or bomb shelters and ensure that they know what to do in the event of a war," the source said. The campaign will include television commercials and ads in newspapers that will stress the importance of selecting a "secure area" in or nearby one's home which people will be able to seek refuge in during a missile attack. IDF sources stressed that the launching of the campaign was not related to any intelligence information but was based on regional trends and the fact that Israel's neighbors in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza were accumulating short as well as long-range missiles in the event of a conflict with Israel. People interested in receiving instructions on how to select a secure room can access the Home Front Command's Web site at www.oref.org.il.