The Environmental Protection Ministry said late Tuesday it had detected a possible oil spill off the coast of central Israel that could become a national or regional pollution incident.
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Earlier in the day, it was alerted by the European Maritime Safety Agency, who satellites identified the suspected spill. Initially, the ministry was unable to locate it, but was later assisted by the Israel Defense Forces, whose reconnaissance flights detected the spill 25 miles off the coast of Netanya.
The ministry said in a statement it has established a dedicated situation room in Haifa to tackle the population.
"The military is assisting with sea and air patrols to formulate a response, and the Home Front Command is on standby to assist if the spill reaches the shore," it said.
The Defense Ministry, Nature and Parks Authority, Society for the Protection of Nature and local municipalities are also involved in the assessment of the situation and have been instructed to prepare for a possible national emergency.
"All parties involved conducted situation assessments yesterday [Tuesday]," the ministry said.
The Water Authority said in a statement that "as of this moment, no special instructions have been given to desalination plants. The plants' filtration systems are working as usual and if there is any suspicion of pollution, the pumping will be stopped immediately. Even in such a case, no disruption in the water supply is expected."
The news comes almost exactly a year after a massive oil spill contaminated Israel's Mediterranean coast with tar and took a heavy toll on wildlife, considered the country's worst natural disaster in decades.
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