Hezbollah's leader is dead, but Israel's still under attack, prompting extraordinary measures
CBC
Many Israelis may be in a jubilant mood over the death of one of their fiercest adversaries, but the arsenal of missiles and rockets stockpiled by Hezbollah remains a potent threat — prompting extraordinary measures by Israel, including moving a major hospital underground.
The frequency of attacks on Israeli communities near Lebanon's border has only marginally lessened since the assassination on Friday of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanon-based Shia militant group.
In the 24 hours that followed Israel dropping its "bunker busting" bombs on Hezbollah's command centre in Beirut, an operation that killed not only Nasrallah but up to 20 other senior Hezbollah members, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said dozens of missiles were launched from Lebanon toward communities in the northern Galilee area.
Again, on Sunday, several dozen more Hezbollah rockets were aimed at communities such as Tiberias near the Sea of Galilee and Shlomi, near Israel's coastline.
As Israel pressed ahead with more airstrikes in the Beirut area, Iran acknowledged a deputy commander of its Revolutionary Guards was among the victims and vowed his death "will not go unanswered."
In the Israeli coastal city of Haifa, with a population of roughly 300,000 some 50 kilometres from Lebanon's border, the atmosphere remains tense as people fear the area could bear the brunt of a possible counterattack from either Hezbollah or Iran.
A CBC News team witnessed at least two swarms of Hezbollah missiles being shot down by Israel's anti-missile system over the city's waterfront in recent days.
Across Israel's north, there are destroyed or damaged homes and buildings, attesting to the fact that despite the sophisticated system of defences, some missiles still manage to get through.
"It's not 100 per cent, so we still need another level of protection," said Dr. Eyal Braun, director of internal medicine at Haifa's Rambam Hospital.
In the hospital's case, it's actually three levels of protection — three storeys underground.
In a remarkable transformation a week ago, hundreds of patients and more than 2,000 staff packed up wards and operating rooms and moved everything deep below — to the hospital's underground parking lot.
Braun said that where he was parking his car just days ago, there are now bedridden patients attached to monitors and being supervised by nursing staff.
"Since 2006, the second Lebanese war, we knew that in the case of war, we needed to protect our patients and ourselves in a better way," he told CBC during a tour of the facility.
The car park had been designed and built for such a transformation, with plugs, plumbing and plenty of overhead lighting.
