By JPOST.COM STAFF 07/04/2010 19:44
www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=180409

IDF Home Front Command head tells citizens to buy their own masks.

The distribution of gas masks to the general population has been a failure,
the head of the IDF Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan said on Sunday
at an event at the Institute for National Security Studies.

"Today, in comparison with secured protective rooms, there is not a budget
in place that covers distribution of the gas masks to the entire
population," said.

Golan expected that the government would only be able to provide up to 70
percent of the population with gas masks that are to be used in the event of
a major attack with unconventional weapons, as the Post reported in May.

Golan encouraged citizens with gas masks to go out and by their own.
"Sometimes it falls upon the citizen [to protect themselves] and not the
state," he said.

In the meantime, the IDF Home Front Command has prioritized distribution of
the masks to first responders and service providers who will have to provide
assistance to others hurt during any future attack.

The Jerusalem Post learned last month that the IDF Home Front Command was
working on a plan to develop a special siren for non-conventional missiles
that would sound in the event of a chemical or biological attack.

The possibility of using two different sirens during a future conflict – one
for conventional missiles and the other for missiles carrying
non-conventional warheads – came up during the nationwide civil defense
exercise that was held in May called Turning Point 4.

Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.