Israel builds nuclear bomb-proof command bunker

Israel is building a wartime command centre under the hills outside Jerusalem that will be able to withstand nuclear, biological or chemical attacks, officials said today.

The compound would enable the Israeli prime minister and Cabinet to conduct state affairs during an all-out attack.

Israel has been warning of a concerted Iranian effort to acquire nuclear weapons.

Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the project has been underway for some time.

“Every country in the world has a bunker for emergency uses to keep functioning,” he said.

Bulldozers began excavating tunnels outside Jerusalem last year, security officials said.

Secrecy about the project is tight, but Israeli military censors allowed Channel 10 TV to broadcast some pictures.

The report showed the entrance to a network of large dirt tunnels in a hillside, while construction crews worked under cover of darkness.

“With the Iranian threat becoming more urgent, I think it’s more important for Israel to have this type of bunker that will be not vulnerable to that kind of attack,” said Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Illan University near Tel Aviv.

The bunker command post would be Israel’s second.

An underground compound beneath the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Israeli military has been in use for more than 30 years, starting with the 1973 Mideast war.

That bunker was used strictly by the military, not elected officials, and experts worried about the facility’s security during the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraqi missiles fired at Tel Aviv landed nearby.

Tunnel excavation alone will cost more than €85m, while the cost of construction and the communications and ventilation systems needed to allow the underground heart of the Israeli government to operate in wartime is unknown, the officials said.

The project is expected to take several years, media reports said.