In Israel, a new blood bank, which should be used for civilian and military needs, has just been inaugurated. Ultra-secure, it is quite simply the best-protected blood bank in the world. The place required 11,000 tons of steel as well as thick concrete walls. Anti-explosion doors have been installed at its entrance. The construction of the place lasted four years and cost around 129 million euros.
The blood bank will be run by Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross in France. Yaël Benjo is one of the managers of this Israeli national center for blood donation and its storage, which is located in Ramla, in the very center of the country.
“It’s a colossal project, a six-storey structure, three of which are built undergroundshe explains. It is the first blood bank in the world created in this way, with a part in the basement and protected from any danger. It contains all the most modern technologies possible in this world today.”
“We will be able to double our blood harvesting power and we should arrive at half a million blood bags per year, which is double today.”
Yaël Benjo, head of the blood bankat franceinfo
The structure is therefore shielded and houses laboratories as well as deposits of blood and umbilical cords. At the lowest level, underground, a 300 square meter vault has a blood storage area. This gigantic blood bank is designed to withstand missile attacks, but also chemical and biological attacks. It can also withstand terrorist attacks and withstand earthquakes.
Each critical system has a secondary system, including two ramps to underground floors, four groups of elevators, and four generators. Particular care has been taken in the cyber defense of this complex, a subject that the Israelis know well.
The decision came after a cyberattack on an Israeli hospital paralyzed the facility for more than a week, causing irreversible damage. Moshe Noyovitch, the engineer who supervised this project affirms that it meets the new standards in this area. In Israel now, blood banks like other medical units are seen as strategic assets, and therefore as potential targets of attack.