Galilee Medical Center (GMC), located in Nahariya, was founded in 1956. As the sole medical center in the region, it serves a demographically diverse population of 660,000 Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze on Israel’s northern periphery, the majority of whom live below the poverty line. GMC is comprised of 69 medical departments, with over 700 beds which makes it the second largest hospital north of Tel Aviv. GMC staff include over 2,700 dedicated man and women- making it the region’s largest employer. The medical and professional staff pride themselves on providing high-quality and compassionate medical care and treatment to residents of the Western Galilee. In addition to being the largest surgical center in the Galilee today, it is the region’s principal teaching hospital, serving that role for the Bar-Ilan Faculty of Medicine, training two-thirds of its medical students. GMC’s strategic location, just six miles from the hostile Lebanese border, puts it on the front lines – requiring the highest standards of preparedness. The hospital is ever prepared to provide advanced treatment for multiple casualty events involving both civilian and military populations. During the Second Lebanon War of 2006, the Galilee Medical Center suffered a direct missile strike. Yet numerous lives were saved because the hospital had transferred its activities to its fortified underground facilities, the first and only one of its kind in Israel at that time.