Haifa transforms car park into underground hospital as possibility of northern Israel attack looms

Three floors underground, out of the stifling heat, Professor Yael Shachor-Meyouhas wants to make one thing crystal clear.

It may seem like an odd point to make, but it reflects the nature of this hospital ward in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

Professor Shachor-Meyouhas is in charge of a sprawling subterranean complex, stretching underneath the Rambam Medical Centre.

She proudly declares it's the biggest underground hospital in the world.

"During war, it can take us up to 72 hours to prepare," she says. But three days is too long in the current climate.

The ward is ready now, and has been since the beginning of the Israel Gaza war on October 7.

Hospital staff have been running drills, practising moving patients from Rambam's above ground complex into the underground safe haven — a process which can take six to seven hours.

Row upon row of 1,200 empty beds lie in wait for a feared influx where more than 2,200 patients can be treated. At full capacity the space can fit 5,000 people including all the staff and their families.

Reminders of its life as a car park are still there — each space numbered twice — as a place to leave a vehicle and a number corresponding to a bed.

But it is much cleaner than a car park would be. Almost pristine.

The ward can take in all of the patients currently in the aboveground Rambam Hospital, and provide refuge for some from the city's other medical facilities — as well as treat anyone injured if the city comes under attack.

To describe this place as vast seems like an understatement.

There's an intensive care unit, shielded off from the rest of the beds, a quieter maternity space, untouched surgical theatres and even a children's play area.

Much of the money to build the facility, which opened in 2014, has come from private donors.

Why Haifa built this hospital 

The idea for an underground hospital came in 2006, after Haifa came under attack during the second Lebanon war.

Professor Shachor-Meyouhas gave birth to her third son in the basement of an older Rambam building where existing underground surgical suites were turned into makeshift delivery rooms.

"I felt safe at that time, yes, because we were underground, but this fortified hospital is much more than just a safe place," she said.

It even has a dedicated control room with a large screen where doctors can at a glance see information about patients, beds and operating rooms, as well as blood, oxygen, water and fuel reserves.

The state of the art facility is a stark contrast to the conditions faced by medics in Gaza, with hospitals destroyed, damaged, or overrun and barely functional.

The horrors of war are not lost on Professor Shachor-Meyouhas, a practising paediatrician as well as part of the hospital's executive.

"I think that all doctors — our purpose is to treat patients," she said after a brief pause.

A city-wide view from a bunker

Haifa may well be attacked again.

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah said as much in a televised speech a couple of weeks ago, where he promised retribution for Israel's assassination of one of his senior commanders in Lebanon's capital, Beirut.

The picturesque port city of 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.

Damage to the port precinct would not only harm Israel's economy, but present a serious safety threat to the country's third largest city.

There have been plans for years to rehabilitate the heavy industrial site and the surrounding area, which has a long history of storing chemicals and fertilisers.

The government ordered the stores should be emptied, with Hezbollah releasing what they describe as footage from surveillance drones of key sites in Haifa.

"Everything could be a target," Yair Zilberman, the emergency director for Haifa's municipality, told the ABC.

"In 2006, almost 100 rockets hit the ground in Haifa.

"And we had some casualties, of course — and we think that it will be the same, but more rockets this time."

His team have been racing around the city, building more bomb shelters and improving those already scattered across Haifa — increasing capacity threefold.

The refuges can now be remotely unlocked at the push of a button from the Haifa Municipality's own underground bunker, across town from the hospital.

Every day the council staff meet in a war room, inside the warren-like bomb shelter behind thick metal doors.

Joining them are the Israeli Defense Force, the local police and fire brigade, port and airport authorities and other essential services to coordinate their work, with live camera feeds of the Haifa metro area beamed into their control centre.

"Everyone is worried, even me — however, someone needs to be relaxed and to run the situation," Mr Zilberman said.

'There's no reason why wars should be the norm'

Retired Australian-Israeli university professor Paul Feigin lives in an apartment building in the leafy suburb of Ahuza.

Originally from Melbourne, via the Australian National University in Canberra, he has lived in Haifa with his wife for 48 years.

They have raised three daughters and welcomed nine grandchildren — but despite loving Haifa, he is starting to feel like completing the fifth decade in the city could be a stretch.

"Truth is, until this last war started, we never thought of leaving," Mr Feigin said.

"We have three children here, we have nine grandchildren here, we're here.

"But in the last few months, if the government is going to keep changing the rules and becoming less democratic and a more autocratic regime, I don't think there's a great future."

He said people living in the area should not have to "get used" to living with the threat of war, suggesting the Israeli government should change tack.

"I think that the politicians should work out a way to look into the future a little further than their noses and their immediate needs," he said.

"And we're in a situation where this could be a wonderful place to live.

"There's no reason why wars should be the norm."

But he acknowledges the reality of the situation.

"It worries us to the extent that when we moved to this apartment, we made sure that it had a safe room, and now, when the war started 10 months ago, we actually made sure that we had supplies and water in there.

"So we're being careful but it hasn't really affected our day to day lives. We're really still travelling and still going to my work."

He says while most people are trying to keep up a normal life things feel a bit different.

"[There's] less people walking on the beach the last few months than usual, and there's less traffic around too. So I think there are, there are people who are holding back, who are not doing everything."

'They are not running away'

Back in the Haifa Municipality bunker, a team of staff are at work answering phone calls from concerned residents.

"There's no panic, but people are concerned," Tal Sabino, the call centre's manager said.

"They call us to get information about what they need to do, where do they need to go in case of alarm, what kind of equipment do they need, and we give them all the information."

The phones are not ringing off the hook just yet, but the team are expecting that to change if the situation deteriorates.

Mattresses are piled up, in readiness for pulling all-night shifts.

The team of 15 staff will swell to more than 100, he said.

"We do not underestimate the threat, that's why we're preparing constantly," Mr Sabino said.

"But at the same time, we're determined.