By: Jenny Hill, reporting from Haifa, Israel – BBC News; bbc.com
Deep under the northern Israeli city of Haifa, there’s a vast underground hospital. Hundreds and hundreds of beds are lined up within its concrete walls. There are operating theatres, a maternity ward, and medical supplies stacked up in corners. But there are no patients – yet.
Rambam Medical Centre excavated this bunker after the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006. It’s normally a multi-storey car park but it can be converted into a hospital in less than three days. It’s been on standby since shortly after the Hamas attacks of 7 October and Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza.
The facility has more than 2,000 beds. In the event of a major attack on Israel, it would take in existing patients from the overground medical centre and other nearby hospitals. And there’s room too to treat injured casualties. As the threat of an all-out regional war looms large following the killing of Hamas’ political leader Ismael Haniyeh and Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr last week, doctors here say they’re prepared for a major attack on Haifa.
“When, when, when is it going to happen? Nobody knows. We talk about it a lot,” says Dr Avi Weissman, the medical director of the centre. People, he adds, are anxious. He and his staff just hope that any escalation of violence doesn’t last long.