(JNS.org) Israel’s nationwide home-front defense exercise reached its peak on Monday, May 27 with two air-raid sirens going off midday and in the evening. Along with the sirens, citizens received messages on cellphones and other communication devices with instructions, according to Israel Hayom. The exercise is intended to test Israelis’ responses to emergencies at workplaces, schools and homes. If there were no safe rooms in the vicinity when the sirens went off, citizens were asked to seek the most protected area they could find and stay there for 10 minutes. The weeklong exercise, named “Resilient Homefront 1,” was designed to simulate missile attacks all over Israel as part of a mock total war, including urban population centers and areas of strategic importance. The exercise simulates missiles being fired from Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, some of them with chemical warheads.