In an effort to improve operational readiness, large-scale exercise held across J'lem, West Bank with YAMAM, Border Police, Shin Bet and IDF forces.
By BEN HARTMANmagav 311(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Police held a series of large-scale exercises on Tuesday across Jerusalem and the West Bank, in what they said were efforts to improve operational readiness in case of a mass-casualty incident.Large numbers of anti-terror “YAMAM” police officers took part in the drills, as did officers from the Border Police, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the IDF.RELATED:IDF launches massive Ground Forces exerciseThe drills began in Ma’aleh Adumim in the morning, before moving to Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood, where police set up a field command center on top of a hill overlooking the main depot of the Jerusalem light rail.Shortly afterward, the drill moved downtown, where YAMAM officers put on white haz-mat suits outside the Foreign Ministry building before being called to deal with a mock hostage situation at the Prime Minister’s Office. As a helicopter circled overhead, paramedics treated “casualties” as police in gas masks and the haz-mat smocks prepared to raid the building.On the street outside the bureau, Shin Bet officers in dark shades watched the drills from vans parked on the street.During the drill, a loudspeaker implored employees inside the Foreign Ministry to stay inside the building.Last Friday, Israel Radio’s military correspondent Carmela Menashe reported that security forces had held a large-scale exercise in the North the day before that simulated dealing with terror attacks and Israeli Arab riots in the wake of a population exchange agreement with the Palestinian Authority.According to Menashe, the exercise included the establishment of a detention camp at the Golani junction to deal with Arab detainees.
