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In Northern Israel, Clashes with Hizbullah Drive a Hospital Underground

(New York Times) Johnatan Reiss - At the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, for the past six months nearly all of the hospital's staff members and patients have gone underground as strikes from Lebanon by Hizbullah, just six miles to the north, have intensified. Getting to the hospital's nerve center these days involves navigating past 15-foot concrete barricades and multiple blast doors, then descending several floors into a labyrinthine subterranean complex. The hospital is one of the most striking examples of how life in northern Israel has been upended since Hizbullah began launching near-daily attacks against Israel in October in solidarity with Hamas. Tens of thousands of Israelis have evacuated towns, villages and schools, and factories and businesses have been forced to close. The hospital had been preparing for such a scenario for years. "We knew this moment would arrive, we just didn't know when," said Dr. Masad Barhoum, the hospital's director general. "This is what I've been preparing for my whole life." The neonatal unit was the first to move below ground on Oct. 7, said Dr. Vered Fleisher Sheffer, the unit's director. "While everyone feels safer here, it's challenging because we are humans, and now we must stay underground." Her unit also went underground in 2006, during Israel's last all-out war with Hizbullah.
2024-04-30 00:00:00
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