People clean up tar from a suspected oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea in the Gador nature reserve near Hadera, Israel, February 20.
(CNN) -
Israeli authorities are trying to locate the source of an alleged oil spill that has been described as one of the most serious ecological disasters to hit the country and that threatens wildlife, has forced beaches to shut down and caused a massive cleanup operation.
Drops of sticky tar began to appear on the country's Mediterranean coasts last week.
Images posted to official government accounts showed seabirds and turtles covered in tar and sticky oil.
"The huge amounts of tar that have reached Israel's coasts from south to north in recent days have caused one of the most severe ecological disasters in Israel," the country's Parks and Nature Authority said on Sunday.
The extent of the contamination is so dire that Israel's Interior Ministry issued an advisory on Sunday urging people to stay away from the country's beaches.
A woman holds a dead fish after cleaning it from tar.
A massive clean-up operation is underway, but the Parks and Nature Authority said it would take a long time to make the marine area safe again.
It has established a registration and information center for volunteers who wish to help.
"Based on field evaluations, it is clear that these complex and strenuous operations will be required to continue over a long period of time," said the Parks and Nature Authority.
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He warned that the spill had not yet been contained as the tar continues to reach the country's beaches.
"Of the 190 kilometers (119 miles) of beach in Israel, 170 kilometers (105 miles) were affected by the ecological disaster," the authority said on its Facebook page on Sunday.
"The event is not over yet and the tar continues to reach the shores."
Authorities are investigating the source of the oil spill, which is suspected to have come from a ship on the high seas.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel toured a portion of the tar-soaked shoreline on Sunday to assess the damage.
Volunteers in protective clothing search for tar along Israel's coast in Herzilya Pituah, north of Tel Aviv, on February 21.
«I was very impressed by the exemplary voluntarism of the citizens who came to clean the beaches.
We must take care of our beaches, our country and the environment, "Netanyahu said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister's office.
"I just spoke with the Minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum of Egypt who came to us and we proposed that all the ships that you see here run on natural gas instead of polluting fuel, as happened here," he continued.
Gamliel said it was his "moral obligation to the public to locate those responsible for the event," according to the statement.
"We have the possibility to sue the insurer of the ship that is responsible for the contamination and we will do everything possible to locate it," he said.
In a separate statement posted on his Twitter account, Gamliel said: "We are doing everything possible to find those responsible for the disaster and tomorrow we will bring to the government approval a proposal for resolutions to rehabilitate the environment."
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