Home Front Command publishes rocket warning map
On multilingual website, Israelis can learn how long they have from siren to missile strike, and what to do when the siren sounds
The IDF Home Front Command has published a map of the country divided into “early warning” areas.
The map divides the country into regions for the purpose of public safety announcements. Israelis can locate their town on the map, which is available in English, Arabic, Hebrew and Russian, and find out what Home Front Command region they are in.
Those regions will be used to issue warnings of impending rocket fire on that area.
For example, Israelis who live in Beit Shemesh live in warning area “Biet Shemesh[sic] 188,” while those in Rehovot live in warning area “Shfela 182.”
If national television stations, including channels 1, 2 and 10, issue a warning for a particular region — Shfela 182, for example — then residents in that area are to enter bomb shelters and remain there for 10 minutes, the IDF said.
The map also provides Israelis with an estimated early warning time, the length of time from the launch of a rocket or mortar from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or Sinai to its fall in an Israeli town. (Bet Shemesh 188, for example, has an early warning time of 90 seconds. Netivot, a town near Gaza that falls in the “Ashkelon 254” warning area, has just 30 seconds from warning to rocket fall.)
The website includes pamphlets detailing how residents should prepare for rocket attacks (English PDF), and how they should react (English Word file) once rockets begin to fall.
An estimated 130 rockets have been fired at Israeli towns since Monday, according to the IDF.
