GAZA/ISRAEL: An Israeli inventor has developed an armoured desk which he says can protect children in classrooms, or adults in offices

An Israeli inventor says he has created an armoured school desk designed to provide a quick and safe shelter to protect children during attacks. Shay Ben Ya'eesh is the former deputy mayor of the southern Israeli border town of Sderot (Sdeh-roht). His community is often the target for rockets fired by militants just a few kilometres away in Gaza. The rocket attacks inspired Ya'eesh to develop what he calls "a concept of a secured environment." Children, who sometimes lack the time to reach a nearby bomb shelter, can now use their instincts to protect themselves, by hiding under their desks. But now children can have armoured desks. "When a child is sitting here," he points at the desk, "when he hears the alarm he just goes inside, under the table," Ya'eesh said. "I created the idea because the situation here in Sderot, and it's not just in Sderot, it's all the area that is attacked by missiles, actually the children don't have enough time, it's about less then 20 seconds to run and find a place where they can be well protected," he added. The drill is simple. In emergencies the children get under their desks and pull the back side of their chair, which is also armoured, towards themselves in a way that surrounds the child by four protective fronts. Several children can hide under one table. Ben Ya'eesh says his standard classroom desk is covered by a high-quality, well-compressed, blast resistant material that can block up to 200 kilograms per centimetre of pressure. "The base is a normal table like we have, we got in our schools and we put this material that is a kind of Polyethylene," he noted. Ya'eesh said school authorities are planning to put the armoured desks in upper floors of buildings, where they can protect students from shrapnel, if a missile were to break through the ceiling. In addition, he said, the desk's relatively light weight turns it into a mobile shelter which can be used in other locations and emergencies such as in close range shootings, explosions, or earthquake prone areas. "If you can hear or you know, you do know that you have a few minutes to take a shelter or to find a shelter it will be the easiest thing to do and you can just go under the desk and pull over your chair, and that's it - 360 percent of protection." The desk prototype was submitted to the Israeli Home Front Command for security and costs examinations. Once it's approved Ben Ya'eesh hopes it would be sponsored and distributed by the Israeli government. Protection comes with a price-tag, however. Ben Ya'eesh estimates that the retail price to equip a standard classroom of about 20 students would range between 30,000-35,000 US dollars.

ITN Source | April 27, 2007

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