The IDF Home Front Command's national rescue unit conducted an earthquake drill in the Jaffa D neighborhood, collapsing an entire simulated street of buildings. The exercise, described by rescue unit commander Brig. Gen. Yossi Pinto as preparing for a non-imaginary scenario, tested the unit's ability to deploy a significant force to a disaster zone within three hours, according to an interview with N13 / Army Radio.
This afternoon, the IDF Home Front Command's national rescue unit completed a large-scale earthquake drill in the Jaffa D neighborhood. According to a report by Moriah Asraf and Doron Kadosh (N13 / Army Radio), an entire city street was demolished and collapsed as part of the exercise, simulating the aftermath of a severe earthquake. Rescue teams worked on the rubble to practice extraction operations.
Brig. Gen. Yossi Pinto, commander of the national rescue unit, stated in an interview during the drill that a severe earthquake across parts of Israel is not a hypothetical scenario — entire neighborhoods could be heavily damaged. He said the force is training to reach any affected area within approximately three hours with a substantial deployment. When the reporters noted that before October 7, 2023, civilians also heard promises of rapid military response, Pinto replied that this is precisely what the unit is training for: to arrive quickly and perform rescue operations as fast as possible.
The Zioneer has previously reported on related preparedness efforts. On June 22, 2026, we covered ZAKA volunteers training alongside the same Home Front Command rescue unit simulating missile-hit rubble in central Israel. On June 16, a separate report noted that volunteer rescuers had been training for a major earthquake, described by The Times of Israel as overdue within a century-long seismic cycle. An earlier June 21 bulletin also mentioned a pre-planned military exercise in the Jaffa area.
The full broadcast from the drill is available via the link provided by the reporters.
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