Illustrative. Photo: Reuters / Tuncay Dersinlioglu.

i24 News – Israel’s Home Front Command warned Tuesday that a strong earthquake expected sometime in the future will leave thousands dead and injured.

The Facebook post came in response to concerned comments following a series of minor earthquakes felt in northern Israel over the past months.

Two small shakers occurred within hours of each other Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning that measured 3.5 and 3.1 magnitude on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the first quake was in Jordan, about nine miles northeast of Beit She’an, with the second one in the same area.

“A strong earthquake is expected to occur in the State of Israel, which will cause a mass disaster accompanied by thousands of dead and injured and extensive destruction of buildings and infrastructure,” the civil defense agency said.

“The fact that there has not been a strong earthquake in a long time increases the chance that a strong earthquake will occur in Israel soon.”

The quakes on Tuesday and Wednesday were part of a series of earthquakes in the region to be felt in Israel in recent months.

They include a 6.5 magnitude temblor in the eastern Mediterranean waters just west of Cyprus on January 11 followed by a 5.3 magnitude quake on February 2 that the geological survey department in Cyprus determined to be an aftershock.

Last week, Israel launched its Early Earthquake Warning system, called TRUAA (trumpet blast). The technology cannot predict a quake but can alert people some distance from the epicenter as soon as a large earthquake strikes to give them precious seconds to protect themselves.

For example, if an earthquake strikes the north Dead Sea, people in Jerusalem will have three seconds to react, while those in Tel Aviv will have 18 seconds and people in Haifa will have 30 seconds.