JERUSALEM: Israel on Sunday kicked off a five-day nationwide defense drill aimed at preparing civilians for rocket attacks while seeking to reassure neighboring Lebanon and Syria of its peaceful intentions.
"This is a routine exercise which has been scheduled for a long time and is not the result of any unusual security development," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
"Israel seeks calm, stability and peace but it is no secret that we live in a region where there is a threat from missiles and rockets," he added.
In the 1991 Gulf War, then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein fired over 30 Scud missiles at Israel, killing one person, injuring over 170 and causing extensive property damage, according to Israeli government data.
Fearing that Saddam would use chemical or biological warheads, Israeli civilians were issued with gas masks and hypodermics loaded with antidotes to nerve gas.
That threat did not materialize but protection kits are still kept in most homes and this week’s exercises will include practicing their distribution.
The drill, codenamed "Turning Point 4," will include a series of alerts as part of field training exercises in different areas as well as a 90-second air raid siren test on Wednesday.
Schools will take part in the siren drills, with teachers leading students to designated safe areas where they will wait for 10 minutes.
The exercises, which are also meant to assess preparedness for civil emergencies, will test mobile phone warning systems.
People in some areas will receive text messages reading "Have a nice day" signed by the Home Front Command, the military said.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the drill was the fourth held annually since the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and was intended to practice lessons learned from the 34-day conflict, in which some 300,000 Israelis fled from border regions under relentless Hezbollah rocket attacks.
"We have no intention of starting a war in the north," Barak told reporters at Sunday’s cabinet meeting.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said the Israeli exercises "ran counter to peace efforts" and the Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon has mobilized thousands of its fighters in response to the drill.
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai had earlier said that Israel had communicated with its neighbors, including Syria, through intermediaries to reassure them of its peaceful intentions.
The devastating 2006 war sparked by a cross-border attack on an Israeli army patrol destroyed much of southern Lebanon, largely a Hezbollah stronghold. Israel estimates Hezbollah has since stockpiled more than 40,000 rockets.
And last month, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of providing Scud missiles to Hezbollah, charges that Damascus has denied. The two countries have technically been at war since 1948.
In addition, Israel believes that its arch-foe Iran is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons which it may launch at the Jewish state.
