Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Horror in Israel after Beirut Explosion, Haifa in Rockets Close Range


Wed 05 Aug 2020 | 08:57 PM
Ahmed Moamar

Experts and officials in Israel expressed their fear of a disaster in Haifa, similar to what happened in Beirut due to the presence of petrochemical factories and the accumulation of dangerous materials in the port.

Haifa is an Israeli major port on the Mediterranean Sea.

Revital Goldschmid of the Haifa Center for Environmental Research confirmed that "the incident in Lebanon demonstrates the danger of concentrating hazardous materials near the population density and it is imperative that we close the flammable and explosive industries".

"He said what exploded was ammonium nitrate.

Although the ammonium tank was emptied in Haifa, but in Haifa port the danger of ammonium still hovering when the ammonium tankers stood in the port not far from the population and a fertilizer factory located in the city center carrying a 15-ton container of ammonium without protection."

The Israeli government is exerting efforts to raise the plan to close dangerous factories".

The Israeli researcher also stressed that Israel is not ready for an event of the size of what happened in Beirut, and that the Ministry of Environmental Protection does not have an inventory of all dangerous materials in industries.

He stressed the need to remove explosive and dangerous industries from population centers and evacuate dangerous industries from Haifa.

On her part, Jamila Wakim, Director of "Citizens for the Environment", said that the most recent risk survey, which is not comprehensive, was conducted in Haifa, which showed that there are 1500 dangerous sources and 800 dangerous substances there.

"We also know that the required safety measures have not been taken, and the amount of hazardous materials has not been reduced," she added.

"Haifa sends its condolences to the families who lost loved ones" in the Beirut explosion, and added that for years it had been fighting a battle to stop the expansion of polluting industries in the port of Haifa.

Today it has become clear to all of us that it is not enough just to stop its expansion, but it must be removed from here.

It is noteworthy that an experiment conducted by Israeli security institutions two years ago that simulated how to confront the threat of "Hezbollah" to bomb ammonium containers in Haifa in response to any attack, revealed the fragility of Israel's preparations on the northern front.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly threatened to fire rockets at ammonium containers in Haifa.

He warned that the effect of detonating missiles on ammonium containers is equivalent to an atomic bomb, and threatens hundreds of thousands of settlers in the northern part of Palestine.

An experiment conducted by Israeli security institutions that simulated how to counter the threat of Hezbollah, by bombing ammonia containers in the city of Haifa in response to any attack, revealed the fragility of Israel's preparations on the northern front.

Hezbollah rockets and precision missiles that are capable of hitting their targets, with a margin of error not exceeding 50 meters, are a real threat to the internal front of Israel.

Yesterday, Thursday, the Hebrew website, "Walla," stated that the Israeli security institutions prepared for any possible military confrontations with the Lebanese Hezbollah, and began to secure ammonia containers in the city of Haifa from any anticipated military attacks, as Nasrallah had previously threatened Israel to direct his party's missiles towards these containers and the Dimona nuclear reactor.

The military commentator for the Israeli site, Amir Boukhfoot, revealed that the security institutions and a number of Israeli engineers have examined the extent of the damage that the explosion of ammonia containers will cause if Nasrallah targets them, and how to secure them from its short and medium-range missiles, which was conducted by those security institutions in the Negev desert.