"I'm a 49-year-old woman. I'm sweating and crying and I can't see. I'm salivating. I have pressure in my chest," the 19-year-old infantryman says, reading from a sign hung around his neck.

He is one of the players enacting a chemical attack on an elementary school in this town just north of Tel Aviv -- one of eight such drills taking place over two days this week across Israel with the aim of preparing police, medics, firefighters and soldiers for various attack scenarios.

The drills include a simulated rocket barrage against the southern town of Sderot, a toxic plume in Beersheba and a missile strike on a Tel Aviv chemical plant. A "mega-terror attack" is scheduled for Wednesday at 11:00 am in the coastal enclave of Netanya.

The focus on chemical attacks comes a week after a chlorine bomb in Baghdad sent hundreds to the hospital with burning eyes and breathing difficulties. But despite mounting anxiety among Israelis about the Iranian nuclear programme, none of Tuesday's mock attacks were nuclear.

"The nuclear matter is not a threat in the coming year," National Fire and Rescue Commissioner Shimon Romasch said.

The massive two-day drill, the biggest and first of its kind here, includes 5,000 police officers, or 25 percent of the force's total manpower, more than 1,000 soldiers and close to 1,500 medics and firefighters.

Michal Orr and her five-year-old son watch as two "terrorists" with red checkered head scarves pour out of a rented Mazda waving Kalashnikov rifles. The pop-pop-pop of firecrackers simulate machine gun fire. Yellow plumes of faux-toxic smoke billow skyward from the basketball court.

"It's very frightening. I have a child in kindergarten and it makes me nervous just watching this even though I know it's only practice," says Orr, who lives near the elementary school in Ramat Gan.

Dozens of ambulances and fire trucks scream into the parking lot. Medics in yellow chemical suits and gas masks plod out to treat the would-be victims, playing dead and covered in stage blood.

A man in a neon vest paces back and forth barking orders in a bullhorn. The sign on his chest reads simply "Director."

Teenage soldiers who have been pulled away from their regular duties manning West Bank checkpoints, act the parts of screaming children, frantic parents and meddlesome journalists.

"They ordered us to be journalists, to run up with cameras and just be annoying," said army border guard Moses Cohen, 22. The sign on his chest reads "Journalist BBC."

A medic scurries to clear people out of the path of ambulances trying to scream away with the wounded, but hesitates to allow the real cameramen covering the drills to linger a minute longer in order to capture the dramatic footage for their evening newscasts.

Authorities said this week's drills were held in order to implement the lessons of last year's war with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia -- a conflict many here consider a failure. "It seems like a publicity stunt," says Orr. "But it's too late for this government. They already messed up and we don't have much faith in them anymore."

However, Israelis know they occupy a precarious piece of Mideast real estate, surrounded by foes who would prefer they settled themselves elsewhere.

Israel has fought half dozen wars with its neighbours since it proclaimed independence in 1948 and faces a constant threat from Palestinians who have endured military rule and occupation for four decades.

"These drills are important. I think something big will happen one day and we have to be ready," says Tal Rakia, 31, a mother of one who lives across the street from the site of the mock siege.

"Since forever we have always had wars and suicide bombers."

Email This Article

Related Links
News and analysis about the Global War Against Terror at SpaceWar.com