Under the Israeli coastal city of Haifa, a hospital readies for war

A vast underground parking garage underneath the Rambam Health Care Campus in the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa is ready to convert into an emergency health-care facility as tensions with Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon erupt into all-out war.

It’s been on standby since shortly after the Hamas attacks of 7 October and Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza. The fortified underground structure can turn 1,500 parking spaces into a 2,000-bed hospital in case of an emergency.

Haifa is only about 30 kilometres away from the Lebanese border and almost 300,000 people call it home — more than 1 million live in the broader region. And international diplomacy continues even as Haifa’s doctors prepare their fortress hospital. There's still hope, perhaps, they’ll never have to use it.