An official Israeli channel reported, on Tuesday evening, that the Ministry of Health had directed hospitals in the north to prepare to accommodate thousands of wounded, against the backdrop of the increasing pace of escalation with the Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Kan channel, affiliated with the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (official), said that the Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Health, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, directed all hospitals in Israel to be able to switch to emergency mode within 24 hours of being asked to do so.
She explained that this means that when necessary, hospitals will move to protected places (shelters), release patients who can be discharged, and prepare to receive many infected people.
She continued: “Hospitals in the north were also asked to be able to reach an emergency within hours, and if necessary, to maintain a 50% occupancy rate to allow the injured to be received in protected places only.”
The channel said that the Israeli Ministry of Health is also preparing for a situation in which the medical staff themselves are injured or forced to join the reserve service, so it is preparing a reserve of doctors from abroad.
The Ministry also directed the North Ziv Hospitals in Safed and the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, to prepare for the situation of the remote island, that is, for the possibility of remaining for days without medical supplies, medicines, and food, according to the same source.
There are about 7,000 Jewish doctors who have expressed their desire to volunteer and help, and if necessary, they will be asked to come to Israel to help, according to Kahn.
Observers say that the situation in which Hezbollah maintained specific rules of engagement in the military confrontation with Israel, as a front supporting Gaza, has collapsed, with the expansion of the battles with Israel, following assassinations carried out by the latter in Lebanon.
The confrontations between the two sides escalated following the assassination of Tel Aviv, the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri, in the southern suburb of Beirut on January 2, and the prominent Hezbollah field commander, Wissam Tawil, in an Israeli raid that targeted his car in southern Lebanon on Monday.
Earlier Tuesday, Hezbollah bombed, for the first time during the current round of confrontations, the headquarters of the Israeli army’s northern command in Safed (north) with a drone, and Israel responded by assassinating 3 of its members.
In solidarity with the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah and Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged intermittent daily bombardment with the Israeli army since October 8, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries on both sides of the border.
