At emergency Knesset meeting, grim picture for North's earthquake prep – Israel News



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 FOREIGN AFFAIRS and Defense Committee's Home-Front Readiness Subcommittee chairman Amir Peretz

FOREIGN AFFAIRS and Defense Committee's Home-Front Readiness Subcommittee chairman Amir Peretz (center) hosts a Knesset meeting on Thursday about the country's readiness for earthquakes. .
                 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
            

Some 3,000 families living in the northern city of Tiberias are lacking the proper infrastructure to protect themselves in the face of a serious earthquake, the city's mayor, Yossi Ben-David Defense Committee's Home-Front Readiness Subcommittee on Thursday.

The meeting was called after dozens of tremors were felt about northern Israel over the past two weeks. The city of Tiberias announced on Sunday it was opened for an emergency hotline for residents.

"The national concept regards earthquakes as the local authority is the foundation and we have the responsibility to respond to the first moments," he said. "We do everything to be prepared, but we need the tools."

Over half of the building in the city, he said, were built before 1984 when standards were put into practice for earthquake durability, and are therefore in danger of

"There is more than one trillion in the world, and it is better to invest NIS 1 trillion now in strengthening and strengthening the population – for instance by improving medical services Ben-David said.

"There are 3,000 families that still have no solutions – and I'm not wanting to scare them away out of stress, but I also have to bring them solutions. Today the government solutions speak of buildings of three to six floors, which are indeed the most common, but there are many one-story buildings, such as kindergartens, which nobody is dealing with, "he added.

Israel is situated along the Syrian-African fault line, which runs along the border between Israel and Jordan, part of the Great Rift Valley encompbading the area from northern Syria to Mozambique. Tiberias is one of the Israeli cities that are most at risk, as Kiryat Shmona.

Rabbi Nissim Malka, mayor of Kiryat Shmona, said that he was one of the most troubled people in the world. "They did not know whether to go to the shelter – they are used to, stay at home," he said, stressing the importance of disseminating public information on the matter. This point was backed by Ben-David, who commented that his residents know how to respond to missiles to the world.

Committee chairman Mr. K. Amir Peretz (Zionist Union) said: "In this field there is a clear advantage that any investment in emergency preparedness, in fact, help in responding to earthquakes. An earthquake is a decree of fate, while security incidents can be prevented in one way or another. If we can not prevent it, we can only prepare it, and we can try to minimize it as soon as possible, and then examine the ways to deal with damages.

"We prefer to prepare for the most pessimistic scenarios in the world, and we are in the process of doing so. But certainly, the state can not blamed them for such an event. We have heard announcements about the good intentions of the finance and defense ministries, and I hope they will be backed by a budget and real work plans. "

Director-General of Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency, medical and disaster services (19659004) "In 2012, the director-general of the Health Ministry asked us to operate in an earthquake, after it had been the responsibility of the health maintenance organizations. Since then, everything we have done has only been our own resources because we did not get any funds from the state. Is there any body in Israel or in the world that is made to deal with such challenges without getting one? Unfortunately, Magen David Adom is not ready today for a scenario of earthquakes. "

A 2016 report by Israel's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's Home-Front Readiness Subcommittee found that if Israel were to be struck by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, an estimated 7,000 people would be killed, another 8,600 injured and 377,000 expected to be left homeless. In addition, the country could face up to NIS 200 billion.

Peretz concluded the meeting by criticizing the disproportionately little attention allocated to the threat as an "ongoing failure."

"We expect the upcoming cabinet meeting to The role of the author and the author of a decision to make a decision on the subject of "he said."


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