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“Officials from the IDF Home Front Command and the emergency services held a status meeting Sunday night to discuss the readiness of the Israeli home front, following a fourth earthquake in northern Israel in just four days,” reports the Times of Israel. “The meeting was held at the Ministry of Home Front Defense at the behest of Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud), and was attended by representatives of Israel’s paramedic, firefighting and police services, and of the Defense, Health and Education ministries.”
Excerpts:
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The officials decided to continue monitoring the situation while increasing home front readiness for natural disasters, Army Radio reported.
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For the second time Sunday, a minor earthquake shook northern Israel around 4 p.m., the fourth of its kind since Thursday.
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No injuries or damage were reported, but Tiberias residents told Ynet that they felt the 3.6-magnitude quake. The first quake Sunday also registered 3.6 on the Richter scale quake. Both epicenters were near Kibbutz Ginosar, on the Sea of Galilee.
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Similarly powerful quakes rattled the north early Saturday morning and Thursday. Last Sunday, a 6.4-magnitude quake, centered in the Mediterranean Sea near Crete, was felt in Athens, Egypt and Israel. In September, an early-morning 3.5-magnitude quake was felt in the northern Dead Sea area, including in Jerusalem.
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Israel held a massive Home Front drill last October, codenamed Turning Point 6, which was aimed at raising the preparedness of citizens, local authorities, and emergency services for dealing with natural disasters.
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The exercise exposed significant shortcomings in Israel’s ability to respond to natural and man-made disasters, particularly in the lack of coordination between the army, the police and emergency services.
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One of the greatest challenges to Israel’s preparedness is the fact that the majority of buildings in the areas likely to be hit by earthquakes were built before the first Gulf War in 1990, and have not been properly reinforced to withstand earthquakes.
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Should Israel, in fact, face an earthquake emergency, it would be necessary to receive a great deal of assistance from around the world in handling the damage and injuries, Channel 2 reported at the time.
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“An earthquake in Israel is more dangerous than war,” the then-chief of the Home Front Command warned.
In the non-fiction book, Epicenter, I note that Bible prophecy warns of several catastrophic earthquakes that will strike Israel in the “last days.”