Israel intends to build underground hospitals in cities located near the border with Lebanon and close to the Gaza Strip, Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) radio station Galei Zahal reports.
The hospitals will be able to withstand direct hits from rockets and to function during a chemo-biological attack.
The total cost is estimated at $114 million. Emergency rooms and intensive care units will be built underneath existing hospitals in Nahariya, Haifa, Nazareth and Tiberias in the north, and in Ashqelon, near the Gaza Strip.
Galei Zahaladded that a similar project had been approved for the hospital in Nahariya a few years ago, but the government failed to deliver the budget and the project was cancelled.
During the Second Lebanon War (July-August 2006), Hizbullah fired rockets onto Israel’s northern regions. Some rockets landed on hospitals near the border, causing them severe difficulties.
Ashqelon is located only a few miles north of the Gaza Strip, from which Qassam rockets are fired onto Israeli communities.