Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan
Home Front Defense Minister Gilad ErdanFlash 90

The Home Front Defense Ministry held an assessment on Sunday evening, in the wake of several earthquakes that have been felt around Tiberias and the Galilee region in the past several days, two of them on Sunday alone.

The discussion was attended by Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) and all other officials relevant to preparing Israel for an emergency that could be caused by an earthquake.

The discussion was meant to examine the readiness of organizations that deal with earthquake preparedness and to discuss strategies for handling emergency situations.

At the conclusion of the meeting it was decided that the working assumption for the moment is that developments will continue to be monitored and that preparedness of the home front for different scenarios associated with earthquakes will be promoted.

The first of the two earthquakes that were felt in the Galilee region on Sunday occurred at around 12:00 p.m. and measured 3.6 on the Richter scale.

A second earthquake was felt at around 4:00 p.m. and also measured 3.6 on the Richter scale. There were no injuries or damages in either earthquake.

An earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale was felt in the same region on Thursday night.

Five days before that an earthquake near Crete was felt in southern and central Israel. In mid-September a minor earthquake was felt in the Jerusalem area.

In 2012 the Home Front Command launched a new campaign aimed at informing Israeli citizens about earthquakes and earthquake preparedness.

In 2011 a State Comptroller report on earthquake preparedness in Israel painted a dismal picture. The report noted that Israel is expected to eventually be hit by a major earthquake, and that a quake could lead to thousands of deaths, particularly in parts of northern Israel where houses and hospitals were not built according to contemporary standards.