IDF Announces National Home Front Training Center

The IDF announced on November 12 that it has established HaMa’aleh, a national center for home-front training and qualification. The center was inaugurated a day earlier, on November 11, at Camp Rehavam, following an instruction from Home Front Command commander Maj. Gen. Shai Klepper to implement lessons from the war. For the first time, the center brings together the command’s training and qualification fields, with the aim of establishing a national professional standard for home-front work in the military and local authorities. Its responsibilities will include developing operational doctrine, professional knowledge, research and development, and training processes for organizations working across the home front. Klepper linked the decision to the need to change emergency preparation. “This decision stems from the understanding that strengthening home-front readiness requires a conceptual change in how we prepare for emergencies and the next campaign,” he said. He described Home Front Command as an operational command that must turn accumulated knowledge, experience and lessons into capabilities in the field. The center is intended to deepen cooperation among the IDF, municipalities and emergency organizations, strengthening preparation for different emergency scenarios and a campaign on multiple fronts. Klepper described a continuing race to learn and adapt against the enemy, and presented the new center as part of the command’s effort to improve its defense of the home front.