The Israeli Environmental Protection Ministry said that the crude oil leak in southern Israel was four times bigger than first believed, and that as much as 1.3 million gallons of oil have polluted the Evrona Nature Reserve in Israel’s Arava area.

Ecologists have warned that it is very difficult to fully assess the damage caused to the reserve’s ecosystem, and that the area’s rehabilitation could take years.

The pipeline, which is maintained by the Ashkelon-Eilat Pipeline Company (AEPC), was breached last Thursday night, at a site some 12 miles north of the southern resort town of Eilat, sending crude oil gushing across an area stretching some four miles.

Rains in southern Israel on Tuesday skipped over the Arava, easing observers who feared that precipitation would speed up the flow of oil to Eilat.

Ministry officials criticized AEPC for using the operational confidentiality it is afforded under its license to conceal the magnitude of the leak. According to Israel’s Channel 2, the Environmental Protection Ministry has shut down the pipeline—a major oil conduit running between the Mediterranean and the Red seas—barring AEPC from resuming its operations pending a full review of its permit.

The Environmental Protection Ministry and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority have launched an emergency operation to try to contain the pollution. More than 20,000 tons of contaminated soil had been removed by cleanup crews by Tuesday morning. An Environmental Protection Ministry official on Tuesday defined cleanup efforts as “a race against time.”

Eilat resident Lisa Mellish has filed a $96 million class action lawsuit against AEPC on behalf of the residents of Eilat, saying they were exposed to toxic fumes as a result of the leak. The lawsuit alleges gross negligence on the company’s part, which it says resulted in the ecological disaster in the Arava.

AEPC issued a statement about the leak saying the company “followed all emergency protocols from the moment the leak was discovered and reported it to all necessary bodies in real time.”

(Israel HaYom/Exclusive to JNS.org)

Thousands of gallons of oil spilled in nature reserves in ecological-sensitive Arava region near Eilat Wednesday night, causing a major ecological disaster.

Highway 90 north of Eilat has been closed to traffic, which has been re-routed to Route 10, to the west. A tractor hit the three-foot diameter Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline at the pumping station during routine maintenance work.

Oil spilled for more than an hour until the flows stopped and flowed for miles in a dry river bed and on the highway. The flow was stopped near the Jordanian border.

The spill will severely damage the existence of animal life and vegetation, and the absorption of the oil in the ground will cause irreversible damage to the Arava.

Charges have been filed against a Muslim man (21), originally from the neighborhood of Issawia in Jerusalem, for threatening to blow up his pregnant wife with a bomb. The woman is Jewish and converted to Islam, according to a report on Erev Eilat News.

The couple moved to Eilat a year ago.

After getting into a fight in their apartment on Los Angeles Street, the man cursed and threatened his pregnant wife. The woman, fearing for her safety, pulled out a knife to defend herself. The husband took the knife away and hit her in the face.

The woman then escaped the apartment and went to stay with a friend.

Her husband found her two days later, and threatened to blow her up with a bomb.

He told her she has 24 hours to leave the city, or he’ll make her disappear.

The man also sent a threat to his wife’s girlfriend via Facebook, writing what he would do to another man that called his wife, and to “ask his friend what we do to a man that goes near another man’s wife.”

The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a rocket aimed at Eilat Wednesday night as terrorists from the Sinai or Gaza brought the port and tourist capital into the range of attacks.

Hamas launched rockets on Be’er Sheva three hours earlier and earlier in the afternoon, and all of them exploded in open areas.

One person in the Eshkol region near Gaza suffered light wounds from shrapnel in several rockets attacks  Wednesday.

The Iron Dome system intercepted two rockets aimed at Ashkelon, where an electric generating system supplies power to shouter and part of part of central Israel.

A rocket launched from the Sinai slammed into the Club Hotel in Eilat at 1:27am, Tuesday morning.

Two rockets were launched. One landed in an open area in the Shachmon neighborhood, the second landed on a car in the hotel’s parking lot, which is also next to the Beatles Pub.

Five people were lightly injured from shrapnel. Two additional people were treated for shock.

The article will be updated as more information becomes available.

Update: Two terrorist groups, Islamic Jijad and the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade, which is part of Hamas’s military wing, both independently claimed credit for the attack. (Maybe they should fight it out among themselves, and leave us out of it).

 Photo: Fanatix / Rotter.net

 Photo: Yamitnachelet / Rotter.net

 Photo: Smiley Hafuch / Rotter.net

A rocket slammed into an Eilat hotel.

CANCELLED: Israeli police announce search is over, there was no infiltration into or near Eilat.

—
Original story:

Police are checking if there was an infiltration into Israel near Eilat via boat.

On Thursday evening, an IDF Naval patrol near the Princess hotel saw an attempt by a boat to approach the beach where apparently it should not have been. The navy ship fired warning shots, and launched flares, according to a report in Haaretz.

Security forces are searching, on land, for 4 suspects they believe may have gotten off the boat to shore, according to Ynet.

The area is right near Road 90.

Guests at the southern Eilat hotels are being told to stay inside the hotel.

The Israel Airport Authority has warned that missile fire may disrupt commercial air traffic. No flights have been cancelled thus far, but takeoffs have been diverted to the eastern section of the airport, and landings are being scheduled for the northern strip.

Ben Gurion International Airport is located 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Gaza.

Domestic departures have already been halted at the small Sde Dov airport in Tel Aviv due to the situation in the south. However, the airport has remained open for arrivals for the time being.

The local Eilat airport has been opened to accept diverted and other flights. Flight schedules may change in accordance with the changing situation in the south.