Sleep with gun under your pillow: Israeli diplomats told

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The terror attack in India, a botched attempt in Georgia and three blasts in Thailand have prompted Israeli diplomats across the world to be extra vigilant, and a former security official advised them to ‘sleep with a gun’ under their pillow.

Being alert is the first order of business, said former Shin Bet official Nimrod Firstenberg. Shin Bet is Israel's internal security agency.

Firstenberg, who has been on the security teams of various embassies, gave a blunt warning: "You sleep with a gun and a flashlight under your pillow."

Israeli diplomats abroad are in a state of emergency, and even the kids are warned to stay alert, reported ynetnews.com.

An Israeli embassy car carrying the wife of a defence attache was targeted in a terror attack in New Delhi on Monday while in Georgian capital Tbilisi, police defused a car bombing device attached to a vehicle belonging to a Georgian national working for the Israeli embassy. A day later, three blasts rocked Bangkok on Tuesday and an Iranian was injured.

Veteran Israeli diplomat Eli Shaked suggested keeping a low profile.

"It affects everyone, from the children, who might not go to kindergarten or school...," he was quoted as saying.

Israeli diplomats have been told not to travel in cars in the immediate future, the media report said.

Shaked said diplomats should try to break their routine in order to ‘confuse the enemy’.

"You do everything not to be where you're supposed to be, in order to avoid the spot where (a terrorist) might be staking an ambush," he added.

"Even the young kids realize that something is off, and must be instructed to pay attention to what's going on without panic and without scaring them," he said. "The goal is to lead a life as normal as possible in an abnormal environment."

A foreign ministry official said that Monday's attacks were a ‘concrete warning’ that more attacks are on the way.

"Vigilance is crucial; vehicles and routes are double-checked and triple-checked."