Air-raid sirens sounded across Israel on Tuesday afternoon, as part of one of the most extensive civil defense exercises ever staged in Israel. The drill tests the readiness of security and rescue forces and local officials in scenarios including a missile attacks on Ben-Gurion airport and a suicide chemical weapons bombing at a school near Tel Aviv.

The exercise was briefly halted soon after it began Tuesday morning, as security forces were ordered to hunt for suspected terrorists believed to have entered the Sharon region, north of Tel Aviv.

The drill came as a government commission of inquiry and the State Comptroller's Office conduct parallel probes of the preparedness and performance of emergency workers, security forces, and local authorities during the summer Lebanon war.

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A total of 5,000 police, or 25 percent of the overall operational force, will be involved in the exercise, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

About 130 communities will be involved in the operation, which is meant to improve coordination between the different security forces and rescue crews, Rosenfeld said.

Some 1,000 IDF soldiers will also take part.

As part of the drill, which is to continue into Wednesday, air-raid sirens sounded in many parts of the country at 2 P.M.

The drill is to include simulated rocket attacks, one of the targets of which will be Ben-Gurion International Airport, as well as non-conventional warfare and attempts by terror groups to carry out large-scale attacks during a war. The exercise, which will involve thousands of soldiers and police officers, is loosely based on the war in Lebanon, but simulates a far more extensive attack.

In the two-day operation, thousands of security forces personnel and emergency workers are to respond to simulated attacks on seven different locations, including the mock chemical attack on a school and a rocket strike on a Tel Aviv power station.

GOC Home Front Command Yitzhak Gershon conceded Monday that mistakes had been made in the management of the home front during this summer's war in Lebanon. Gershon and the head of police operations, Bertie Ohayon, will be in charge of the drill.

"We made mistakes," Gershon said at a press conference in Tel Aviv. He said that the Israel Defense Forces was already aware of many of the necessary changes cited in the state comptroller's report on the way the home front was managed during the war and that some of them have been incorporated into Tuesday's drill.

Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh (Labor) said the scope of the drill was unusual and is one way to improve the state's readiness to deal with another war that threatens the home front.

Critics have said the army and home front command did not do enough to protect northern Israel from the nearly 4,000 rockets that Hezbollah rained on the area during the war.

A total of 159 Israelis were killed during the monthlong conflict, including 39 civilians hit by Hezbollah rockets, despite a heavy Israeli onslaught on the militia.