Last update - 00:00 13/09/2006
Knesset panel: Israel should prepare for rocket threat
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent
A Knesset subcommittee reported Tuesday that Israel could be subject to an even greater rocket assault in future conflicts than that it experienced during the Lebanon war.
"What the home front experienced during the current war is the tip of the iceberg compared to what could happen here in future wars," acording to a report presented by the subcommittee of inquiry into home front preparedness during the war.
Subcommittee Chairman Ami Ayalon (Labor) presented the 35-page report to Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima).
The preliminary report indicates serious failures by the Home Front Command and government in attending to the residents of the north during the war.
The committee's report regards the government's functioning on the home front as a "failure in leadership," because the government first treated operations in Lebanon as a "campaign" rather than a war, and thus emergency procedures and contingency plans prepared for such situations were not implemented.
One procedure not followed was the economy plan. "It is difficult to find the logic in the decision not to implement the emergency economy plan," the report states.
The committee calls on the government and the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for a situation in which in future wars, rockets and missiles will threaten residents of the entire country, not just those in the north.
According to the report, "we must assume that a renewed wave of Palestinian violence may in a few years include the threat of short-range rockets on city centers in the central part of the country."
The committee also said that, "The Home Front Command has a stock of thousands of reservists, most of whom were not drafted at all during the war. For unknown reasons, the Home Front Command decided not to reinforce the northern district with additional personnel, despite the need that arose on the ground."
The committee further states that, "during the war, a system failure was detected in the functioning of some municipalities in taking care of the population residing in bomb shelters, in terms of food, health, the evacuation of the disabled, communication, shelters, nursing, and money (banks). A large number of municipalities were not prepared to continue providing these services at a time of emergency."
The committee also warns that hospitals are not adequately protected from missiles.
Hospitals coped with the threat during the war by moving patients to inner rooms and lower floors and strengthening the buildings' windowpanes with tape.
The report states that "special attention needs to be given to the issue of protecting strategic infrastructure and hospitals throughout the country."
In the concluding chapter, the committee presents scenarios that could take place in the next war: Syria and Iran may use land-to-land missiles carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives, as opposed to the missiles used by Hezbollah, which only carried several kilograms each.
Additionally, hostile countries possess hundreds of missiles with unconventional warheads, which could cause extensive damage to the home front.