A military training exercise went awry on Wednesday when two artillery shells landed dangerously close to a group of officers and cadets. The mishap occurred in full view of IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, who immediately ordered that the exercise be halted. Gantz was the highest ranking of several senior officers attending the exercise at Israel's southern Tzeelim base, which simulated a combat situation involving several army corps simultaneously. Forces were later allowed to resume the exercise, but without using live artillery fire. According to witnesses on the ground, two shells fired at Tzeelim's training grounds missed their intended target, hitting just several dozen meters away from a group of soldiers and senior officers, among them GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi. Commander of the IDF Army Headquarters Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman and Mizrahi carried out an initial debriefing, after which Gantz gave the go-ahead for a partial resumption of the exercise. However, only the infantry and armored corps participated. The exercise began Wednesday morning at around 7 a.m., with Gantz there to observe first hand. It is customary for the chief of general staff to make periodic visits to army bases when exercises take place. The first phase of the exercise proceeded as planned, with six shells landing in their designated target area, at a safe distance from combat soldiers stationed near the target who were waiting for orders to storm out of a structure and enter the mock battle scene. The sixth and seventh shells landed a few dozen meters from the forces and from Maj. Gen. Mizrahi, who had just visited the forces and was on his way to the chief of general staff's position. According to witnesses on the ground, after the two stray shells hit, the chief of general staff ordered the troops to hold fire, effectively suspending the whole training exercise. The decision was made on the spot, sources said, and Gantz was in full command of the situation. Following 40 minutes of consultations, in which Gantz, Turgeman and Mizrahi reconstructed the accident with maps and other tools, troops were ordered to resume the exercise, without actually firing artillery. An IDF Spokesperson's Unit statement released Wednesday said the "Chief of general staff takes this matter very seriously and has ordered the commander of the IDF Army Headquarters to form a committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident." IDF Spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai told Army Radio Wednesday that IDF's top safety officer had been dispatched to Tzeelim in order to learn the appropriate lessons from the event. "Training exercises entail risk, and our job is to reduce them to a minimum." The committee tasked with launching an inquiry into the event, headed by a colonel, is expected to release its findings in the coming days, and is likely to issue specific recommendations as to how to avoid further such incidents. One of the main questions investigators will have to tackle is whether the inaccurate hits were a result of human error or a technical glitch. In 1990 several reserve soldiers from the same base were killed when an artillery shell accidently hit their positions during training. Two years later, on November 5, 1992, a Sayeret Matkal (elite special forces) squad was hit during a drill reportedly simulating the assassination of then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The exercise was being attended by the chief of general staff at the time, now Defense Minister, Ehud Barak. Five combat soldiers were killed, and several others wounded, when guided missiles hit the structure they were stationed in, after it had mistakenly been designated as empty. On Wednesday the IDF Homefront Command launched the first phase of a biohazard exercise targeting Israel's civilian population in the north. The exercise, dubbed "Orange Flame 6" is expected to continue into Thursday and is being carried out under the auspices of Defense and Health Ministries. It simulates an unconventional warfare scenario in which terrorists attack Afula, Tiberias, Nazareth and Nazareth Illit using biological agents. One of the goals of the exercise is to examine the joint operations and coordination efforts by Magen David Adom in Israel (the largest civilian emergency service apparatus in the country) and the Homefront Command in the event of mass casualties. Other institutions taking part in the drill include local hospitals, HMOs, local councils, the police, fire fighting services, the Environmental Protection Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and Water Authority. More than 800 mock patients were "treated" in the drill on Wednesday. Participating hospitals included Afula's Haemek Medical Center, the Holy Family Hospital in Nazareth (known to locals as the Italian Hospital) and the Baruch Padeh Medical Center Poriya near Tiberias. After initial checkups, the medical teams successfully determined that the "victims" had been exposed to a biological agent. Lab samples were sent to the Israel Institute for Biological Research at Ness-Ziona to identify the suspected virus and determine the right course of treatment. Medical staff were instructed to simulate a contingency plan where they would have to don biohazard suits at the start of the outbreak until results came back from the lab. Smallpox, the plague and anthrax are the most hazardous biological agents that could be used in a terror attack on Israel. Israel has the capacity to vaccinate large portions of the population and even set up large quarantine areas to prevent the diseases from spreading. To date, no terrorist organization is known to possess these biological agents. In the coming months, another drill, simulating a nuclear bomb attack, will also be conducted. The exercise will simulate a "dirty bomb" attack on Haifa. GOC Homefront Command Maj. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg warned on Wednesday that the Israeli population's readiness for unconventional warfare could be compromised by budgetary constraints. Speaking in Nir Etzion before a forum of a regional council heads on the anniversary of the Mt. Carmel forest fire, Eisenberg said the IDF will not have enough gas masks to distribute to the public, an even more pressing need due to regional instability. "We will not be able to provide gas masks to about 40 percent of the population," he said, "Budget cuts in light of the growing threats are divorced from reality on the ground in a startling way." The general said that the budget holes could be fixed if a sum of more than NIS 1 billion (about $ 266,000) were injected into the IDF coffers. "If we take all the money we have at our disposal and put it in the right places we will have no problem with gas masks. But unfortunately this matter [preparedness for unconventional warfare] has been handled on an ad hoc basis without a focus on long-term preparedness and readiness." Eisenberg said. But even if the funds are found immediately, he cautioned, it will take about two years before the Homefront Command completes the distribution of gas masks to all citizens. Since the first Gulf War, Israeli citizens have routinely been reminded to get their free gas masks and every household has been instructed to keep such protective gear on hand in case of a war.
IDF training exercise goes awry as chief of staff looks on
Senior officers unhurt after shells nearly hit their observation posts • Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz halts drill, orders inquiry • Homefront Command conducts large-scale simulation of biological attack.
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