June 16, 2011: In an effort to limit civilian casualties during a missile attack, Israel has developed and is testing an alert system that relies on cell phones. Several tests of the system this year were generally successful, although some phones were found to crash while receiving the alert. While this is being looked into, the alert system is, overall, considered a success. That's because enough people in the area would get the alert, and would spread the message to those around them who did not, or were still wondering why their phones had just crashed.

The alert sends a text message to those in areas about to be hit by a missile. The Israeli missile detection radars can calculate where the target is, and an automated system sends out the text messages to cell phones of people who live in the target area. That gives people a few minutes to seek shelter. Without gas masks and early warnings, it's calculated that at least 16,000 Israeli civilians will die if Iran or Syria attacks with missiles armed with chemical warheads. Israel is also issuing new gas masks to its citizens, although there have been some political problems with getting this completed.

Israel has threatened to retaliate if any country fires chemical warheads at them. This may mean the use of Israel nuclear warheads on Israeli missiles. Israel has not admitted that it has nuclear weapons, but it is generally believed that they do.