Parking Zone To Hospital In 7 Hours: Inside Underground Health Camp In Israel

Nearly nine metres below sea level in northern Israel, hidden beneath what looks like an ordinary parking structure, lies one of the world's most fortified underground hospitals. As tensions once again rise on Israel's Lebanon front and fears of escalation with Hezbollah continue to dominate the region, the underground emergency facility at Rambam Health Care Campus has returned to the centre of Israel's wartime preparedness.

NDTV accessed the massive underground healthcare complex in Haifa that can transform from a civilian parking zone into a fully operational war hospital within hours. During previous fighting on the northern front, including the conflict period when rockets targeted northern Israel, the facility treated 144 wounded soldiers while missile sirens echoed across the city.

Hospital officials say the entire emergency transformation process is designed to happen in nearly seven hours. Patients, doctors, nurses, medical equipment and intensive care systems are rapidly shifted underground even as air raid alarms continue outside.

Inside the heavily fortified structure, the atmosphere resembles a military bunker merged with a modern hospital. Three giant underground floors spread across nearly 20,000 square metres each can together accommodate nearly 2,200 patients at one time. Intensive care units, emergency wards, operating theatres, maternity sections and dialysis systems are all built into the underground complex.

#NDTVAtGroundZero: Inside The Underground Hospital Shielding Israel's Northern Front

NDTV's @aishvaryjain speaks exclusively to Hagit Assaf from Rambam's International Relations Department on how doctors, nurses and patients are shifted underground even during active… pic.twitter.com/WDGF240pCZ

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The hospital was designed after the 2006 Lebanon war exposed the vulnerability of northern Israel's medical infrastructure. Rockets had landed dangerously close to the Haifa hospital zone, triggering concerns over how doctors could continue treatment during sustained attacks.

What followed was one of Israel's most ambitious civilian defence projects.

The underground hospital took nearly two years of planning and four years of construction. Built at a reported cost of nearly 120 million dollars, the structure sits so deep underground that engineers had to use around 100 pumps continuously for almost two years to remove seawater during construction because of its proximity to the Mediterranean coast.

Officials told NDTV that special reinforced materials were used across the structure to withstand missile strikes and offer protection even against chemical and biological attacks.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV, Hagit Assaf from the International Relations Department explained how the hospital is built to function during prolonged conflict scenarios.

Even during active bombardment, critical surgeries, emergency trauma treatment and life saving care can continue uninterrupted underground, she said.

As the conflict along Israel's northern border threatens to widen once again, the fortified hospital beneath Haifa has become more than a medical facility. It is now a symbol of how Israel is preparing for the possibility of a longer and more dangerous regional war.