Israel's beaches hit by irreversible oil spill
Volunteers clean up an Israeli beach hit by the oil spill on February 20, 2021. AP - Ariel Schalit
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2 min
The Israeli authorities are actively looking for the freighter which emptied its holds off the Israeli coast polluting a large part of the beaches on the Mediterranean coast.
Part of the damage would be irreversible.
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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,
Michel Paul
Experts are unanimous, it is one of the worst ecological disasters that Israel has known.
Tons of fuel oil swept over no less than 170 kilometers of Mediterranean beaches dumped into the sea by an unknown vessel currently wanted by Israeli authorities.
Eliane Lezmi, an activist of the environmental NGO Nikyon Kapayim, literally "with clean hands", is sounding the alarm in the face of this oil spill.
“
This current oil spill in Israel is a foretaste of what lies ahead.
In the near future,
oil from the United Arab Emirates
will pass through Israel, Eilat and exit in Ashkelon via a pipeline.
That represents 120 tankers in Eilat per year, and 120 tankers per year also in Ashkelon, all with the risks that go with it ...
"
Throughout the weekend, volunteers cleaned up the beaches.
Then reinforced by units of the Israeli army.
It is a real disaster for the marine fauna.
The corpse of a young whale 17 meters long
has washed up on a beach in southern Israel.
The daily
Yediot Aharonot
has already warned its readers: "
The beach you will visit next summer will have nothing to do with the one you have known in the past
."
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Israel
Oil
Environment