Attack drill
Attack drillTomer Feder

Magen Yehuda, a volunteer NGO to train first response teams to combat terror throughout Israel, held its most wide-scale drill yet on Thursday.

The drill was meant to prepare emergency teams in the Gaza Belt region to prepare for terror threats from the Hamas enclave of Gaza.

Thursday's drill simulated an infiltration of terrorists into a local kibbutz in which they barricaded themselves into the cafeteria and took hostages. It included explosives being planted, and then a scenario in which the teams had to deal with a suicide bomber.

The drill was unique, training Kibbutz Erez's local security team and emergency team together with a large number of additional forces including special units of the IDF, police, Magen David Adom (MDA), civilian teams, local security teams and more.

Tzur Meir, director of Magen Yehuda, said, "in the drill goals such as training the emergency system for situations and responses in accordance with the ascribed threat were achieved."

Listing other goals achieved, he noted they included a "check of the level of professionalism and preparedness of the local security team and emergency teams of the towns to give an effective response in accordance with the scenarios."

The drill also was for a "sharpening and improvement of the communications between the town and the army and emergency forces at the time of an incident. And more than anything, (for an) increase of the feeling of security among the residents."

Magen Yehuda works together with IDF and the security forces to train local security teams in over 400 towns in Israel, and also trains civilians to know to respond effectively in the complicated security situation in Israel, said Meir, adding that the NGO runs on donations from generous Jews worldwide.

The drill
The drillTomer Feder