A soldier in a protective suit holds up a lump of tar during spill clean-up operations in Israel's Sharon Beach Nature Reserve on Monday.Ariel Schalit / AP
Tons of tar lurk like a biblical plague on Israel's coast after the biggest spill in a decade in that corner of the eastern Mediterranean.
Since the first chapapote stains were detected a week ago, about 170 kilometers of coastline have been blackened for a long time.
Thousands of soldiers and volunteers have mobilized to save wildlife and clean up contaminated areas.
The Government has imposed silence on the investigation of the environmental catastrophe, in which a dozen ships may be involved, according to data from the European Maritime Safety Agency.
All the beaches between the Lebanese border and the Gaza Strip have been closed to the public, and the Beirut authorities have also confirmed the presence of tar stains on its southern shores.
The court in Haifa (northern Israel) that has approved the official secrecy order, still does not allow the publication of the identity of the vessels suspected of having sailed in the area where a large oil slick is located, 50 kilometers from the coast , in which the spill was expected to occur on February 11.
The
Haaretz
newspaper
points to the Greek-flagged oil tanker
Minerva Helen
as allegedly responsible for maritime pollution.
The shipowner company has denied any involvement of the ship, which is sailing towards Spain according to the naval monitoring portal Marine Tracker.
In Israel, it is common to silence the media on security and defense.
A military censorship service ensures compliance.
The Minister of the Environment, Gila Gamliel, has promised to urgently present a report on the country's means of protection against threats to nature.
Israel invests huge sums in security and defense, but when large forest fires break out, it is forced to ask neighboring countries - such as Greece or Cyprus - for help, since it barely has air means to fight the flames.
Nor does it have satellites to observe the spills in the sea.
The Haifa Oceanographic Research Institute receives satellite information on water temperature or the penetration of sunlight into the sea, but not on oil slicks.
Seabirds and turtles - of which at least four have died - have been found covered in tar at various points along the coast, where the strong waves registered during a storm last week dragged the spills.
An autopsy on a 17-meter-long juvenile fin whale, found lifeless stranded off the coast of Ashdod (south of the coast), has revealed the presence of dark fluids in the cetacean's lungs.
The director of the National Parks and Natural Areas Authority, Shaul Goldstein, has called the situation the "worst natural catastrophe in a decade" in Israel and a setback of many years in efforts to protect biodiversity on the coast.
How it will affect fisheries remains to be seen.
The government plans to allocate tens of millions of euros to cleaning difficult-to-reach places, which must be done by hand.
Meanwhile, it tries to identify those responsible for the oil spill in order to claim compensation in court for damages caused by pollution.
“The Ministry of the Environment lacks funds and powers.
We have to act quickly to avoid further damage, ”the director of EcoOcean questions the Israeli government's actions, in statements to the Hebrew press.
This environmental NGO has coordinated the mobilization of 7,000 volunteers for cleaning tasks.
The director of the emergency center for marine pollution, Yoav Ratner, says he does not remember a spill that affected so many points along the coast.
“The best way to clean [the chapapote] is to do it by hand.
We try to minimize the use of mechanical means, ”he told
The Times of Israel.
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