Tensions are rising in the Middle East, particularly between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah. In Haifa, on the Israeli side and a few kilometers from Lebanon, the Rambam hospital is preparing for attacks.
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The elevator doors open onto level −3 of the parking garage at Haifa’s Rambam Hospital, and eyes widen. Every time he goes down, Assaf Zeltzer, head of the plastic and reconstructive surgery department, can’t believe it himself: “We are in the main parking lot of the hospital, designed precisely to be able to go from a parking lot to an underground hospital in a relatively short time”.
Haifa, Israel’s largest port, is a strategic city. At 25 kilometers from Lebanon, she is preparing. During the 2006 war, hundreds of missiles were launched by Hezbollah. This trauma led the Israeli state to equip itself with an air shield, the Iron Dome, and a gigantic underground hospital, built under the city hospital. At level −3, it can accommodate 1 200 patients, while there are still 800 additional beds on the floor below.
“It’s like in the movies, it’s a bit like science fiction.”
Assaf Zeltzerfrom Rambam Hospital in Haifa
Since the Hamas attack on October 7, the hospital has been on alert. Within two to three hours, all patients can be transferred to this underground hospital. Located in nine meters below sea level, everything is ready. “We are preparing for any attack, explains Assaf Zeltzer. The walls are concreted and can withstand a massive missile attack, and also unconventional weapons. All you hear here is the ventilation system, air purification, oxygen and air exchanges. All scenarios have been planned.”. In June, Hezbollah released a drone video of the city, which showed the Rambam hospital, wedged between two military bases.
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At the entrance to the dialysis area, Margalit bustles between two patients. This nurse has experienced several wars. Because of the daily rocket fire from Hezbollah on northern Israel, she had to flee her newly built house. At her waist, she carries a revolver. “The big fear is infiltration. If I carry a weapon, it’s so that I don’t find myself without a means of defending myself. During the war, in 2006, there were explosions, you hid in the shelter and you felt safe. Today, you don’t even feel safe in your own home.”
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In front of her, Slimane, 34, his eyes tired. He comes here every two days to be dialysis: “Yes, of course, with everything that is happening around us, being in a fortified place is reassuring.”. At the back of the room, a secure corridor opens onto the command room. Lined with screens and telephones, it is a real HQ. “We see the number of patients, the pathologies, the time we have with the generators, the water left in the tank, the oxygen we have left. We have to be prepared for everything.”describes Assaf Zeltzer, as Haifa waits every day for missiles to fall on Israel.
In Haifa, a hospital has been set up in an underground car park – report by Claude Guibal and Marc Garvenes