The space occupies the basement of a reference center for emergency care in the country
In a period of 30 hours, Israeli military personnel and health professionals transformed a parking lot for 1,400 vehicles into the world’s largest underground hospital. Located in Haifa, in the north of Israel, Sammy Ofer has been ready to receive patients since Wednesday (11).
The space occupies 60,000 m², divided into three floors, in the basement of the Rambam Health Care Campus Hospital, a reference in emergency care in the country. There is space for 2,000 beds and 8,000 people, including healthcare professionals, patients and their families.
Sammy Ofer is resistant to chemical and biological weapons attacks, rockets and missiles. The decision to build it was made in 2006, after Haifa was attacked by the Lebanese radical group Hizbullah. At least eight people were killed and hundreds injured on that occasion. Now, the Health Ministry and Rambam have decided, as a precaution, to activate the bunker hospital again.
“On Saturday morning [when the Hamas attack began], 1,200 people were killed, including babies and children; 3,000 wounded. Although the war is in southern Israel, the tension has increased. So we started deactivating the parking lot and preparing the hospital on Monday, with the help of the Israeli Armed Forces,” says Rambam director Michael Halberthal.
Another issue motivated the activation of the unit: Hizbullah’s movements on the border with Lebanon, in the north of the country, where the hospital is located. For the director, it is this conflict that will determine whether patients will be taken underground.
On Tuesday, the Armed Forces went on alert after 15 rockets from the group reached the Galilee, in northern Israel.
“We have two fronts: the south and the north. But Hamas rockets are simpler. Hizbullah has powerful rockets. The decision on when we will take the patients underground depends on how the conflict develops in the north, and will be made together with the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Health,” says Halberthal.
Faced with threats of air strikes, the upper part of the Rambam is expected to be emptied and all the patients taken underground within eight hours. The unit is self-sufficient in oxygen, energy, water and gas for 48 hours and is designed to withstand rocket attacks every four minutes for up to 35 days.
Construction was completed around 10 years ago. Since its inauguration, however, the hospital has only been used once, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Between 5,000 and 6,000 patients were treated there.
For the residents of Israel, the news of the reopening of the underground wing was greeted with a mixture of apprehension and confidence. “Apprehension because it means there is a suspicion that attacks could happen soon, and confidence because here there is a high level of reliability in the army’s decisions,” says Brazilian Gabriel Paciornik, who has lived in the country for 26 years.
The structure
The second floor is used for reception and sorting. The second and third floors are for hospitalization. Filters on the walls protect against chemical and biological agents. The fortification’s thick concrete protects against missiles and bombs.
In 2013, Halberthal, who was head of triage at Rambam, told Folha that the walls of the building shook when attacks took place in 2006. Now, he recalls the case: “No hospital was fortified and we had 70 rockets falling around us. We were lucky then. Now we no longer depend on luck, because we are protected.”
In Israel, there are three other underground hospitals, one in the capital Tel Aviv, one in Petah Tikva, the central district, and another in Jerusalem.