\n<\/p>\n
Deep under the northern Israeli city of Haifa, there\u2019s a vast underground hospital.<\/p>\n
Hundreds and hundreds of beds are lined up within its concrete walls.<\/p>\n
There are operating theatres, a maternity ward, and medical supplies stacked up in corners.<\/p>\n
But there are no patients \u2013 yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rambam Medical Centre excavated this bunker after the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s normally a multi-story car park but it can be converted into a hospital in less than three days.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been on standby since shortly after the Hamas attacks of 7 October and Israel\u2019s subsequent military campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s room too to treat injured casualties.<\/p>\n
As the threat of an all-out regional war looms large following the killing of Hamas\u2019 political leader Ismael Haniyeh<\/a> and Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr<\/a> last week, doctors here say they\u2019re prepared for a major attack on Haifa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “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.<\/p>\n People, he adds, are anxious. He and his staff just hope that any escalation of violence doesn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Not far from the hospital there\u2019s a stunning viewpoint over the city and its thriving port.<\/p>\n Out to sea, ships and tankers glide across the water.<\/p>\n But Haifa\u2019s proximity to Lebanon \u2013 and Hezbollah\u2019s rockets \u2013 leaves it vulnerable.<\/p>\n Look out over the shipping lanes and you can see the border.<\/p>\n The people who live here are used to emergency drills every few months. School children regularly rehearse what to do in the event of an attack.<\/p>\n One young couple we met in the city centre described living with that threat.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s like a ticking timebomb,” says the woman. “Any minute now it could be an alarm. Will I die? Will I have time to go to my family?”<\/p>\n Others are less concerned. In his newly-opened coffee shop, Luai poured a cappuccino and said he had grown accustomed to the situation.<\/p>\n “People are afraid. I\u2019m not afraid,” he said. <\/p>\n But in Haifa City Hall, the mayor admits to sleepless nights. Yono Yahav is in his eighties and the weight of responsibility hoods his eyes. He also ran the city during the 2006 war.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m very sad about it,” he said. “There is a fork in the Middle East. The leaders are only concerned with destruction, killing, fighting instead of building.”<\/p>\n Haifa is a so-called “mixed city”; a place where a significant number of Israeli Arabs live alongside Israeli Jews. Mr Yahav says it\u2019s a peaceful community, which makes the current conflict all the more painful.<\/p>\n Peace, he insists, is still possible.<\/p>\n And international diplomacy continues even as Haifa\u2019s doctors prepare their fortress hospital.<\/p>\n There’s still hope, perhaps, they\u2019ll never have to use it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n