Libyan ship’s oil spill was somehow an “Israeli assault” on Lebanon, according to the PA
Headline: “The oil spill from Israel worries the Palestinian refugee camps and the Lebanese, Lebanon demands an investigation and compensation”
“The oil spill from a ship that was sailing the waters of the Mediterranean Sea to the shores of occupied Palestine (i.e., Israel) – which caused damage from Rosh HaNikra in the south to the Lebanese city of Sidon and a number of areas in the capital Beirut (sic., the damage stretched along Israel’s coast from Ashkelon in the south to Rosh HaNikra in the north) – caused deep concern among the residents of the Palestinian refugee camps and among the residents of Lebanon (refers to the Libyan ship “Emerald” spilling hundreds of tons of tar that caused massive ecological damage to Israel, in one of the country’s worst ecological disasters of all time).
Secretary of the Al-Rashidiya Refugee Camp Internal Committee Ahmed Abu Al-Dhahab told [the official PA daily] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that this is frightening environmental pollution, which has caused a disaster in the territorial waters of Lebanon and [a disaster] to the fish in them…
He added: ‘Heavy damage was caused to the Palestinian refugees, as some of them live in homes adjacent to the coast, and in addition there are 40 fishermen in the Al-Rashidiya refugee camp whose livelihood was harmed as a result of the oil spill.’ …
He also said: ‘Tomorrow [March 5, 2021] there will be a long day of volunteering by youth groups that will clean the coast. We must help with our primitive capabilities to resolve the problem, in constant coordination with the Sidon Municipality, and this is in addition to the important role that the Lebanese Ministry of Environment and the nature reserves on the Lebanese coast are fulfilling to halt this Israeli assault (sic.).’ …
It should be noted that last Saturday local volunteers and organizations began cleaning parts of the Tyre coast nature reserve following the oil spill from Israel and the arrival of large quantities of tar and toxic oils…
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefed the UN on Feb. 25, 2021 regarding the severe pollution that was caused to the Lebanese coast as a result of the oil spill, which reached it by sea from the direction of occupied Palestine.
[Lebanese] Minister of Foreign Affairs Charbel Wehbe sent a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres… in which he emphasized that the UN needs to determine the causes for this spill and who is responsible for it, so that Lebanon will be able to demand compensation for the heavy environmental damage that was caused to it.”