Air raid siren
Air raid sireniStock

A recent earthquake drill in Beit Shemesh revealed that in various areas in Ramat Beit Shemesh, the air raid sirens are not audible, Kikar Hashabbat reported.

According to the report, in Ramah A and Ramah D, in most of the haredi neighborhoods no siren was heard.

The site examined whether the residents were able to hear the sirens when they sound in warning of incoming rocket attacks, and found that a great number of Ramah D residents do not hear the sirens at all, and others hear it "very weakly."

During Operation Shield and Arrow, when rockets were fired towards Beit Shemesh, many of the residents said that they did not hear the siren, and only found out about the rocket fire when they heard the explosions from the intercepts near their homes.

The residents also did not hear the sirens when they sounded marking Israel's Memorial Day. And, in fact, all of the Ramah A and Ramah D residents who spoke to Kikar Hashabbat said that they did not hear the earthquake drill siren in real time.

One resident who spoke to Kikar Hashabbat explained, "I only received the alert on my phone, from the Home Front Command app. There was no siren at all."

Another resident, Hai, told Kikar Hashabbat, "When there was a siren in real time, we didn't hear anything. We only hear the 'booms' and then we went into the bomb shelter. My five-year-old son was very scared by the noise of the rocket falling, and since then he has trauma from sirens."

Another resident told the site, "It's enough to run the washing machine, and you won't hear anything."

The problem is mostly concentrated around D-2, where some residents hear a very weak siren, and in the further parts of the neighborhood no siren can be heard at all, the site added.

"The Home Front Command is working and will work together with the local authorities in order to provide a comprehensive solution for the residents of the new neighborhoods," the Home Front Command's Major (Res.) Dani Cohen told Kikar Hashabbat.

He added that within the next year, new sirens will be set up, to overcome the problem.

Beit Shemesh's municipality responded, "The Home Front Command is leading a move to place sirens in the new neighborhoods in the city of Beit Shemesh. Mayor Dr. Aliza Bloch is insistent that the Home Front Command as quickly as possible reduce the discrepancies in the sirens throughout the city."