ISRAEL: Massive bomb shelter built in Jerusalem

ETGAR LEFKOVITS
The Jerusalem Post (Jpost.com)

A massive underground bomb shelter being constructed near the new government compound in Jerusalem will be used by top government officials as a war room in case of a conventional or non-conventional attack, officials said Wednesday.

The sprawling underground complex, which has been under construction for a couple of years now and is due to be completed in the next year or two, is not specifically connected to the recent Iranian nuclear threats against Israel.

The underground war bunker, which is estimated to cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars, will run from the government compound, and will include a two kilometer escape route which will end on the outskirts of Jerusalem, near the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Road, according to a report in the Jerusalem weekly Yerushalayim, which took pictures of the bunker.

The underground escape route, which will end in Emek Ha'arazim, will enable the prime minister to vacate the government compound in case of emergencies, and get to Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, where a similar underground bunker has been in existence for years.

The construction of the underground bunker was approved last decade when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert served as mayor of Jerusalem.

Earlier this week, both The Sunday Times and CNN reported about the construction of the underground shelter in the context of today's Iranian nuclear threats against Israel.

Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told The Sunday Times that the underground bunker will serve as a command and control center that will be able to run the state during a war, even after a nuclear strike.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the map.

Last week, Olmert said that the international community is "hardly doing anything" to stop Iranian nuclear ambitions and its ongoing threats to annihilate Israel, which he said echoed statements coming out of Germany just before the start of World War II seven decades ago.

His comments came as Iran publicly announced that it has doubled its capability to enrich uranium by injecting gas into a second network of centrifuges.