Israel’s largest emergency drill simulating two mega-catastrophes on the scale of the World Trade Center bombing was held this week in the Haifa region, with the local version of Red Cross, Magen David Adom (MDA), using a new solar/satellite camera for the first time.

The exercise focused on the Haifa shopping mall at the southern entrance to the city. Some of the scenarios drilled during the exercise included a suicide bomber, a gunman spraying bullets in all directions, and a large car bomb.

Five hundred and thirty one “casualties” – mostly injuries – were “reported” during the exercise. The “wounded” were evacuated to hospitals across the North in Magen David Adom ambulances and Air Force helicopters.

MDA staffers and volunteers from seven of its regions, 100 ambulances, mobile intensive care units, motorcyclists and hundreds of medics and paramedics, as well as MDA’s Blood Services, the Home Front Command, the Fire Service, the Health Ministry, the Haifa municipality, the Zaka rescue and recovery of human remains organization and three Haifa hospitals participated in the simulation. The drill was overseen by Police Inspector- General David Cohen.