As rocket attacks from Lebanon increase, hospitals in northern Israel have been ordered to move patients to shelters, media reported on Sunday.
Rambam Hospital in Haifa, the largest hospital in the region, announced that it would transfer patients to its underground emergency room starting at noon, in line with army guidelines.
Rambam’s so-called “bunker hospital,” built in 2014 and located more than 16 meters underground, can accommodate up to 1,400 patients, both soldiers and civilians, according to its website.
Normally the site is used as a parking lot, but it is also protected against biological and chemical attacks.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, which is an ally of Hezbollah, military clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah have taken place almost daily in the border area between the two countries.
There have been casualties on both sides, most of them members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Hezbollah says it stands in solidarity with Hamas.
