Israeli military and government agencies have been practicing for a scenario of severe marine pollution in Eilat. The ecosystem in Israel’s most southern city, especially the coral reef on its shores, is one of the most sensitive and important in the world. In the case of marine pollution, there is a potential for great damage to it due to the active seaport in Jordan which is the country's sole connection to the world's oceans, as well as Israel's southern port and therefore the Israel Defense Forces sees the importance of being prepared for such a disaster.
As part of the drill, the marine unit teams of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Navy exercised the handling of a diesel oil spill incident. According to the statement released by the Navy the drill was with "the aim of increasing the skill of the crews to respond to and handle incidents of oil spills.”
During the training, soldiers and the commander of the tugboat unit participating honed their responsibilities in case of a disaster. The operation was led by Eli Warburg, director of the department for the prevention of sea pollution in Eilat, part of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, along with his deputy Oz Goren.
#IsraeltheRegion #Eilat #Aqaba #GulfofAqaba #oilspill Jordan says Aqaba oil leak under control while Israelis… https://t.co/EhgZqFqMlM
— Israel News (@IsraelNewsNow) August 24, 2016
The unit's soldiers went out to sea on a rubber boat and a tugboat along with the patrol boat "Environment 3" of the unit for the prevention of marine pollution, and practiced containment of pollution as a result of a vessel malfunction. The forces deployed maritime blockades together and used unique pumps while pumping the liquid into tanks and evacuating it to storage tanks.
According to Warburg: "The joint exercise focuses on the cooperation of the forces to prevent sea pollution in order to protect the sea and the coral reef in the Gulf of Eilat." Oz Goren adds: "The teams showed great professionalism with close cooperation of the two teams together."
This is not the first activity of IDF Navy soldiers in protecting the environment. Red Sea field officers in the Navy, together with the Nature Defense Forces organization, have already led several projects, including the construction of a nesting site for seagulls and the restoration of corals that were washed away in a storm two years ago.
FSO Safer, that has been described as a “floating time bomb”, moored in the Red Sea, is still waiting for a new vessel to remove its cargo of 1.1 million barrels of oil.#MarinePollution #OilSpill
— SAFETY4SEA (@safety4sea) January 19, 2023
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Lt. Col. Shai Khudara, commander of the Red Sea theater in the Navy said in his statement: "As we are entrusted with maintaining security in the region, so is the protection of the environment in it important to us. For the first time, we carried out an exercise in the arena with the Ministry of Defense, in which the tugboat anchor servants from party 915 participated, and this is another step in strengthening the professionalism and unity of the mission to maintain a clean maritime space.
