The historic city cascades down a steep hillside to the very edge of the port, a complex that houses Israel’s biggest oil refinery, giant fuel tanks and other highly flammable targets.
Memories are vivid in Haifa — about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Lebanese border — of the 2006 Second Lebanon War against Hezbollah, when the Iran-backed terror group’s rockets repeatedly slammed into the city, reducing homes to rubble and leaving more than a dozen people dead.
Residents are also aware of the notorious Beirut port blast that killed more than 220 people, injured at least 6,500 and devastated large parts of the Lebanese capital in August 2020.
Haifa is now in the crosshairs once again, with Iran and its proxies feared to be preparing an attack over last week’s killings of top officials from Hezbollah and Hamas.
“Of course it’s a main concern, especially after what we’ve seen happening four years ago in the harbor of Beirut,” long-time resident Patrice Wolff told AFP, when asked about the potential for a big explosion.
“We know how damaging it can be, a blast from this area, so we are very conscious of it. And we certainly hope it will not come to be that bad.” READ MORE