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Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7138754.ece
Just Another Drill - But Next Time It Could Be the Real Thing
(Times-UK) James Hider - The ominous wail of air raid sirens along the beach front and busy boulevards of Tel Aviv was met with a strange mixture of dread and apathy this week. Israelis knew that their security services were practicing countering potential missile strikes in the event of another war. Next time - and many Israelis believe that it is just a question of time - the barrages of rockets will come from Iran, Lebanon and Gaza, and could number in their tens of thousands. Across Israel's cities, men in nuclear-chemical-biological rubber suits could be seen rushing to imaginary impact sites as police hoisted dummies on to stretchers and oversaw potential evacuations of urban zones. During the 2006 war some 300,000 Israelis fled the rockets landing in the north. This time, officials practiced accommodating large numbers of Tel Aviv refugees in Jewish settlements inside the West Bank, which are expected to be spared the onslaught.