IDF on high alert, orders opening of civilian bomb shelters in north

The IDF is on high alert in the north and ordered the opening of bomb shelters on the Golan Heights following US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

By: TPS

IDF officials ordered civil authorities in the Golan Heights to open civilian bomb shelters Tuesday as US President Donald Trump announced he would pull the United States out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action  between the Islamic Republic and the so-called P5+1 – the five permanent members of United Nations Security Council plus Germany that limited Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for economic relief.

Earlier in the evening, IDF officials instructed local governments in the Golan Heights to open municipal bomb shelters after detecting irregular Iranian activity in Syria, and said the army had deployed in an “expanded defensive posture” to respond to a cross-border attack from Syria and would prepare the civilian population on the Golan Heights accordingly.

“The IDF is prepared for any situation and warns that any action directed against Israel will be answered with a strong reaction,” the IDF Spokesman’s Unit said in a media statement.

Katzrin Mayor Dima Apartsev told the Hebrew-language Hadashot (news) program that the city’s shelters have been open for the past week but that other than that the region has maintained a normal routine.

“The shelters here have been open for a week. We’re ready (should anything happen), but right now we are just keeping to our normal routine and keeping our eyes open,” Apartsev said.