WarSclerotic

The wail of sirens in downtown Tel Aviv sparked a brief moment of panic on Wednesday morning, as most people were unaware of the civil defense drill the Home Front Command was conducting.

Residents, business owners and visitors said that for a few moments, they thought the 90-second siren − the rising-and-falling type used during real emergencies − was announcing that war had broken out.

	Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar overseeing a civil defense drill.
	Photo by: Alon Ron

The Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command had announced in media outlets that the sirens would be tested, but the announcements were apparently not prominent enough.

Some people immediately responded on Facebook and Twitter. “Was that a siren just now, or did I imagine it?” one person posted on the IDF Tweeter feed. “A siren test by the Home Front Command is underway at the moment − not a real emergency,” the IDF responded.

“I didn’t hear a thing about it,” Erez Bernholtz, 30, of Tel Aviv, told Haaretz. “I was in the shower and I thought missiles were falling on Israel.

“I got out of the shower and went to my iPhone and started looking at the news sites to see if a war had started,” continued Erez, who was in his third-floor apartment when he heard the siren. “I had two terrified minutes when I suddenly realized how real it is. We hear about it all the time and supposedly know about the situation, but you don’t really stop to think about it, because you have to go on with your life. But it seemed logical enough that I thought it was real.”