Training facility depicting Arab town
Training facility depicting Arab townHadas Porush

Hundreds of police have been practicing since the beginning of the week the evacuation of Amona at the Tzeelim army base in the Negev which normally serves military trainees.

The expulsion from Gush Katif in 2005 was also practiced at mock villages.

This week senior police officers including the Chief of Police came to observe the training from up close.

The training is taking place at the National Center for Land Training, which is built in the form of a civilian town. A senior officer who took part in the training said that names of the families in Amona were written on the buildings in the training facility the in order to make the training more 'authentic.'

The IDF built a training installation 10 years ago near the Tzeelim training base in order to train combat soldiers in urban warfare. The installation is the largest of its kind in the world with over 600 structures, including mosques, eight story buildings, passageways, a refugee camp, cellars and underground passages as well as advanced communications systems.

The installation is used by the IDF as well as by foreign army units including some US army units.

Deputy Police Commissioner Major General Zohar Dvir said Thursday at a conclusion ceremony for police cadets that "we will be there in Amona and we will do our job with 'firmness and sensitivity'" (The same words used by Ariel Sharon when describing how to evacuate Gush Katif).

Dvir referred to the possibility that violence might erupt and declared that "If we need to be firm, we will be more firm."