Haifa stages big home defense exercise mocking Syrian-Hizballah chemical attack 
DEBKAfile July 17, 2012, 7:30 PM (GMT+02:00)

Wednesday, July 18, the Home Command launches its first large-scale peparedness exercise for an emergency arising from a potential Syrian and/or Hizballah chemical attack on Haifa, Israel’s third largest town. The scenario simulates a chemical missile revenge attack by Hizballah on the Institute of Technology’s scientists, a direct rocket hit for setting loose convicts from jails and a high casualty toll necessitating the use of the big Kiryat Eliezer stadium to accommodate the bodies of victims.  An unmanned drone will practice emergency services and the Carmel tunnels will be used  as public shelters to accommodate potentially large numbers of people fleeing from danger.
Haifa Mayor Yonah Yahav urged all public and commercial services to adjust to the need to serve the public in a war emergency. He warned that ATMs may not be working, supermarkets may run out of milk and even mobile phones might go dead. The two-day drill will entail evacuating some people from their homes.

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Syrian rebel chief orders all-out offensives on Damascus and Aleppo 
DEBKAfile July 17, 2012, 7:12 PM (GMT+02:00)

Free Syrian Army commander Colonel Riad al-Asaad has ordered an all-out offensive on all sectors: Rebel forces in the south and rural orders told to capture Damascus; northern and eastern forces to seize Aleppo, Syria’s financial capital. Syrian rebels claim to have shot down a Syrian army helicopter over  army helicopter was shot down over the Qabound district of Damascus. Monday, rebel forces drove into two southern districts of the capital and clashed with strengthened battalions of pro-Assad Shabiha militianmen.