More on the economic and ecological damage being inflicted on Lebanon, from Nimrod Halper of Haaretz:
“The cost of cleaning up more than 100,000 tons of crude oil that flowed into the Mediterranean Sea when Israel bombed Lebanon’s reserves could reach half a billion dollars, estimates the Lebanese environment minister, Yacub Sarraf. Some 110,000 tons of oil have been released into the sea, three times the amount that leaked from the doomed Exxon Valdez that washed up on the Alaska shoreline in 1989, devastating the ecology and wildlife of the coast. The oil is coming from the Jiyeh utility storage tanks, 30 km south of Beirut, which the Israel Air Force bombed on July 13 and 15. The oil released has befouled beaches along Lebanon and Syria too. Moreover, the fighting has prevented the cleanup from starting. Experts warn that beaches in Cyprus, Turkey and Greece could also be affected.”
