Israel Holds Drills to Protect Elections from Lebanon, Gaza Attacks
Israel”s security forces have carried out military maneuvers to prevent possible attacks from Lebanon and Gaza aimed at sabotaging the Israeli parliamentary elections, the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Tuesday.
An Israeli army spokesman told the paper the exercises did not come in response to "any specific threats" of imminent attacks but are part of precautionary measures to prevent any act of violence.
He said that in the southern Israeli towns some 780 voters will be casting their ballots in 595 posts, therefore any missile attacks from Gaza will cause "major disruption" to the election process.
In order to ward off such attacks, the army launched a wide-scale deployment of 4,000 security agents, including police, soldiers, security guards and volunteers, he said.
As part of security drills, the army trained members of the electoral committees to escape from their voting posts in case of an attack carrying the ballot boxes to prevent fraud.