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In the unit responsible for investigating the tar contamination are safe: within days we will find the source

Rani Amir, head of the national unit for the protection of the marine environment, does not deny that his team was surprised by the pollution disaster, but claims that the quick response led to the cleaning of more than half of the beaches.

He demands an increase in the number of inspectors: "It was a warning call."

His office sent a team of investigators to Greece to examine a suspicious ship

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• Infection

• Ministry of the Environment

Yoav Itiel

Saturday, February 27, 2021, 9:44 p.m.

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In the video: Netanyahu refers to the environmental disaster of coastal pollution (Photo: Yoav Itiel, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Sharon Adi, Gidi Bettelheim)

A difficult week passed for Rani Amir, head of the national unit for marine environmental protection at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, who dealt with the most serious marine pollution damage that Israel has known in decades.

"I think we are coping well with this trouble that has befallen us. It is a serious incident in its scope and layout, but more than that - it is a warning call because it can be much more serious."

He added that "we are in control and work according to the Talmud (National Plan for the Treatment of Marine Oil Pollution - 11), the local authorities work according to the book, and the spirit of volunteering also according to the book, cope well and in the end the test of the result is more than "50% of the beaches have already been cleaned. I believe we will be able to return the beaches to the public even before the start of the bathing season on March 21."

Read more about the tar disaster

• Following tar contamination: The Ministry of Health bans the marketing of fish and animals from the Mediterranean

• At the request of Walla!

  NEWS: The court has reduced the restraining order on the investigation of the tar disaster

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"More than 50% of beaches have been cleaned up."

Tar pollution in Atlit (Photo: Nature and Parks Authority, Yigal Ben-Ari)

Amir maintains optimism, but admits it was the hardest week of his career.

The question remains open: Who is responsible for the disaster?

"We are narrowing the range," Amir defines the progress towards decoding, "We deny options and there were a lot of options, we use all the data we have and receive from abroad.

We cross-reference information and one of the reasons I do not sleep is that the time I can spend thinking about it with our teams is in the evening and at night.

We do not know yet to put our finger on it, we have a limited number of suspects more than the others, but we are still examining all directions. "

Three investigators in total are in charge of the same investigation conducted by Rami Peleg, which has 33 people. Amir points out that there are people who help They have the assistance of the Legal Bureau and are assisted by experts and information coming from satellites and other sources such as the Shipping and Ports Authority whose people he defines as "full partners in the investigation."

But bottom line, in military terms, it is a platoon-wide force in charge of Israel's long border defense. Sharpens one of the most painful points ", admits Amir," The problem is that on this small office and these 33 people who are at the forefront of the State of Israel in routine and emergency, in everything related to the protection of the marine environment, including professional guidance, supervision and enforcement of all discharges to the sea From terrestrial sources, of everything related to infrastructure facilities, such as ports, oil terminals, desalination plants, power plants, aquaculture, both in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, in addition to marine planning, coastal, cliff protection, sand transport, gas rigs and all gas activities And oil in a region that is halfway to Cyprus. "

More on Walla!

NEWS

The huge pollution: Tar also drifted to Galim Beach Reserve in Atlit, cleaning efforts continue

To the full article

"Still checking all directions."

Amir (Photo: Yoav Itiel)

He said, "It's all about this small, budget-less office and this unit that has a division's responsibilities on its shoulders. Our counterparts abroad are agencies with hundreds of people.

In the moment of truth we have to deal with the whole front including investigations.

Under these conditions we have successes with dozens and hundreds and convictions against ships.

We have a lot of professional knowledge in investigating ships in general and we have the most professional people in the country in this matter, neither the Israeli police nor anyone else. "However, at a Walla! NEWS question at a press conference this week, Amir admitted that he did not remember the trial and conviction that hit Israel outside territorial waters its.

the gag order sought office he said: "there is serious concern caused damage investigation because of all publications and to the extent that continue to draw us information then the chances of growing."

"We will inspect any ship that raises suspicion"

European sources determined this week that the vessel that caused the tar disaster in Israel was on February 11 on its way to or from the port of Ashdod.

Four ships were moored in the area in the day before or after the oil spill, which does not include the Minerva Helen, whose name appeared in publications in Israel, or another ship in the Minerva fleet.

Another oil spill also occurred on February 5th.

The shipping newspaper "Lloyd's List", published by the Regional Center for the Mediterranean for Emergency Response to Pollution, published the article in an article entitled "The shortlist is shrinking."

It will be recalled that members of the National Unit for the Protection of the Marine Environment inspected two of the ships that called at the port of Ashdod - and acquitted them.

"There is no statistic that we have not known since a day and a half after the incident," says Amir in response, "We know exactly what was published, we know the maps, the lanes, the spots and the events. Our intention is to get on all these ships and check if there is any. "Possibility that it came out of them. We are in the middle of a test operation that takes time for many reasons. The whole ban was because we thought that naming ships and saying they were suspicious is not true for fear of disrupting the investigation. For us as an investigation unit we want to keep all options open."

Location and timing of the time when the tar contamination began (Photo: screenshot, no)

According to Amir, "Currently we have ruled out the involvement of about ten ships, but more have been added, because we are expanding the search circles. I can say that we are testing dozens of ships. It could also be someone else doing it for us. The Spanish authorities have professionals just like us and definitely "When a Spanish authority gets on a ship and performs the test I ask it to perform, then for me the story is over."

Tonight his office announced that a team of investigators had been sent to Greece to inspect a suspicious ship.

"We work 'full gas' and hope we get to decipher within days, not weeks. Everything has to be exposed quickly. You can't pull something like that over time."

He also adds, "We have the capabilities, but it is true that if the State of Israel wants to have the right capabilities to deal in real time, then we owe at least twenty-five standards and twenty-five million shekels every year. Only this will allow, for example, manning ten stations. "We have in the Mediterranean, because today we can not respond immediately. There is no serious investigative body that does not have an intelligence body that specializes in its field. This will allow the establishment of real-time investigative and intelligence teams. It is a utopia but we do not give up. We are dealing."

Did this event surprise you?

"This event surprised me and this event surprised everyone. Suddenly you got up in the morning and saw black. But, we were ready for it. People miss it and cross us."

Ready as on Yom Kippur?

"My father always told me that Yom Kippur was no surprise," replies Amir, whose father, the pilot, Abortion Champion Amos Amir, was at the height of his military career the deputy commander of the Air Force with the rank of brigadier general. Plan is ready but from the pressure and hysteria he did not do what he had to do. So for the tar event we were ready in terms of our poor organizational structure facing a million tasks with few people who acted exactly according to plan. How do you know? See the result. Of course it is thanks to volunteers, of course "It's thanks to the local authorities. But, all this as part of a program we wrote for them, we prepared them, we practiced them and we guide them."

"On the other hand, in the next event, which could be very large, and maybe not tar but let's say from a simple tank in the EPA containing a quarter of a million tons of crude oil, if we are not ready because of the devices we do not have, all the equipment we do not have and all the budgets Time tells me there are things that are more important than them, so we will be in a much more serious problem.

It is time for the Ministry of Finance and the decision-makers to understand that we have threats of a different magnitude and to give this unit what it needs. "

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