[Source: Reuters]

Israel’s ambulance service has stocked blood supplies in a fortified underground centre, factories have moved out hazardous materials and municipal authorities are checking bomb shelters and water supplies as the country waits for a threatened attack from Iran and its proxies.

Israel has been fortifying its home front for months and many preparations have been in place since the start of the war in Gaza last October, when thousands of Hamas-led gunmen carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Israeli communities.

But the urgency has risen sharply over the past 10 days as a relatively contained conflict with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon has threatened to spiral into an all-out regional war.

Israel now finds itself facing the threat of a multifront war, confronting a clutch of militant movements – Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, all backed and funded by its longstanding enemy Iran.

An attack is expected in the coming days following vows from Iran and Hezbollah to retaliate for the assassinations last week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

After months of alarm and an attack by hundreds of Iranian missiles in April that was thwarted by Israel’s air defences and the help of international allies, Israelis have become used to the crisis.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from northern areas in range of Hezbollah rockets at the start of the war and many border areas now have a ghostly, abandoned air.

But a prolonged bombardment from Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal could reach deeper into the country to sensitive targets like the port city of Haifa in northern Israel, which is well in range.

The city’s Rambam Hospital has been on alert since last October and has readied its three-floor, fortified underground facility to treat patients.