Israel closes beaches after huge oil spill

Israel closed all its Mediterranean beaches until further notice on Sunday, days after an offshore oil spill deposited tons of tar across more than 160km of coastline in what officials are calling one of the country’s worst ecological disasters. Activists began reporting globs of black tar on Israel’s coast last week after a heavy storm. The deposits have wreaked havoc on local wildlife, and the government determined on Sunday that a dead young fin whale that washed up on a beach in southern Israel died from ingesting the viscous black liquid. Israel’s

Nature and Parks Authority has called the spill “one of the most serious ecological disasters” in the country’s history. The environmental ministry and activists estimate at least 1,000 tons of tar, a product of an oil spill from a ship in eastern Mediterranean this month, have already washed up on shore. The ministry is trying to determine who is responsible.