Government Brochure Lays Out Post Retreat Threat Scenarios

2005-06-12

Nadav Shragai

Ha'aretz

www.haaretz.com/hasen/ spages/587070.html

A brochure for teachers prepared by the Home Front Command and Education Ministry ahead of the disengagement lays out threat scenarios encompassing dozens of communities surrounding Gaza.

The brochure, approved by the army's Southern Command, says 45 communities in the sector surrounding the Gaza Strip - in the regional councils of Hof Ashkelon, Sha'ar Hanegev and Sdot Hanegev, as well as the city of Sderot - will likely be exposed to direct fire by light weapons, mortar shells and Qassam rockets, as well as terrorist infiltrations, after the disengagement is implemented.

The brochure is being distributed to teachers in the relevant communities, with the idea of inculcating students with a proper sense of the dangers involved, and preparing accordingly. Teachers at schools in these areas are already participating in workshops sponsored by the Home Front Command, and are supposed to transmit the material to the students in homeroom classes.

The primary threat circle, up to one kilometer from the pullout line, contains three communities: Kerem Shalom, Nahal Oz and Netiv Ha'asara. This circle is vulnerable to "fire on residents close to the fence area, to terrorist infiltrations, which could occur through a tunnel dug beneath the fences, and to Qassam and mortar fire," the brochure says.

In the second threat circle, between 1 and 2.5 kilometers from the line, are the communities of Zikim, Erez, Nir Am, Mefalsim, Kfar Aza, Kisufim, Ein Hashlosha, Nirit, Nir Oz, Sufa, Holit, Yated, Yevul and Dekel Avshalom. Even these, the Home Front Command says, will be exposed after the disengagement to the threat of terrorist infiltrations, light weapons fire and high-trajectory launches.

Five communities in the third threat circle, between 2.5 and 4 kilometers from the line, are vulnerable to terrorist infiltrations and mortar and rocket fire: Nir Yitzhak, Be'eri, Sa'ad, Alumim and Magen.

The fourth threat circle, between four and seven kilometers from the line, includes the communities of Yesha, Mivtahim, Ami Oz, Pri Gan, Ein Habesor, Re'im, Sde Avraham, Gvaram, Carmia, Yad Mordechai, Or Haner, Ibim, Gavim, Yakhini, Kfar Maimon, Zimrat, Shoqeda, Shuva, Yoshivya, Tekuma, the city of Sderot and the Sapir educational campus. The Home Front Command says these communities will be in danger of coming under mortar and Qassam fire post-disengagement.

The communities in question are being asked to employ a series of security precautions, some of which are already in place but need to be upgraded.

The guidelines refer to an electronic fence; a perimeter road combined with security lighting; patrol vehicles; electric gates; public address systems in homes and schools; observation equipment; secure rooms; early warning systems; precision weapons, such as the M-16 rifle; bulletproof classrooms; and protective walls designed to safeguard communities against direct hits.

These walls are slated to be erected in places where communities are devoid of natural barriers like sand dunes.

One section in the brochure covers the preparations that families should take for a time of emergency in their community. Another section considers a terrorist infiltration into a school, and describes how pupils should behave in such an event. Other scenarios look at the possibility of cars being attacked by light weapons fire or Molotov cocktails.

The brochure details a series of psychological aspects pertaining to young children and ways of dealing with these.

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis