Israel’s Health Ministry has ordered hospitals in the north of the country to prepare for the possibility of receiving “thousands of injured” people as tensions with the Lebanon’s Hezbollah group increase, Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported.

Israel’s state broadcaster KAN reported on Tuesday that the country’s Ministry of Health has asked medical centres in the north such as Ziv Hospital and the Celile Medical Centre in Neharia to prepare for the possibility of going into “deserted island mode,” that is being left without medical supplies, medicine and food for days.

The ministry also asked hospitals to go into emergency mode within a few hours and requested that they maintain a 50 percent occupancy rate.

This also means that hospitals could be transported to other areas and patients which do not require urgent medical attention be discharged early.

Tensions have flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.