Israel reports ‘direct hit’ on hospital by Iranian missile after targeting Arak nuclear reactor

And on Monday, hospital staff accomplished a minor medical feat: doctors birthed triplets in a cesarean section procedure that the delivering physician said would have been complicated and risky even in the best of times.

“It was a unique kind of triplets. We had two placentas and three babies,” said Yadov Salt, 59, director of the division of fetal maternal medicine. “It’s even more complicated because of the space, because of the conditions.”

Haifa is Israel’s third-largest city but its proximity to Israeli defense installations means that it’s taken an outsized share of Iranian bombings.

Eliana, a 33 year-old nurse in the hospital’s plastic surgery department, was among the mothers who gave birth in the past week, entrusting her own colleagues with her care under fire.

“It wasn’t very nice because we were very afraid and it was very difficult,” she said, still wearing a dressing gown as she pushed her son Tiger’s crib into the maternity ward.

Eliana said she was terrified when she heard explosions just as the doctor prepared to insert her epidural. But the conventional birth proceeded without complications.

It was so smooth she said her son’s birth in the parking garage turned hospital was even better than her daughter’s peacetime birth several years ago.

“To be honest, it was such a good experience,” she said. “I was feeling very safe. I felt that everyone was there for me. They were rooting for me and they were very supportive.”