IDF launches surprise drill on Gaza border

Combined air, ground forces to conduct multiple pre-planned exercises along southern frontier

The Israeli military on Sunday launched a surprise drill along Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip, over half a year after a bloody conflict with the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave gave way to a nervous calm.

The IDF said in a statement that the drill would take place throughout the day, and include both land and air forces.

Troops would prepare against a number of possible scenarios, and would operate throughout the area along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The exercise came seven months after the end of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, a 50-day conflict against Palestinian armed groups in the coastal enclave. The war claimed the lives of 73 Israelis, mostly soldiers, and over 2,000 Palestinians, roughly half of whom Israel claims were combatants.

An IDF spokesperson said on Twitter in Arabic that the drill was planned in advance and wasn’t conducted in response to security developments in the vicinity.

#IDF is conducting a surprise exercise in the surrounding communities of the #Gaza Strip. #HopeIsNotAMethod pic.twitter.com/vcsLzVIHCx

— Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) March 22, 2015

The move also came just a few months after a State Comptroller’s report criticized the lack of readiness in the IDF reserves, saying they were under-trained to the point that they may not be able to fulfill wartime missions.

The IDF’s Home Front Command, responsible for emergency and disaster response in the country’s population centers, also launched a multiple-day drill Sunday in cities outside Tel Aviv.