"Israel's Worst-Ever Oil Spill Could Damage Environment for Years", 10 Dec 2014

Ecologists said on Wednesday it could take years to clean up a massive oil spill that flooded an Israeli nature reserve with up to five million liters of crude and threatened to spread to the Red Sea shore and neighboring Jordan.

A breached pipeline started spewing oil into Evrona desert reserve – famed for its rare deer and douma palms – a week ago, causing what experts called the worst spill in Israel’s 66-year history.

Clean-up teams have started sucking up the slick and have dug pools and erected barriers to stop it spreading further. But they warned that any rainfall could swell the black streams and overwhelm their defenses.

After the clean-up, experts would still have to deal with the damage caused to the fragile environment, they added...