Israel team in Greece probing ship suspected of oil spill

Israel has sent investigators to Greece to inspect a ship suspected of causing an oil spill that has covered much of Israel’s shoreline with tar, the Environment Protection Ministry said on Saturday, according to a report by Reuters.

Israel has been looking at a spill from a ship that passed about 50 km (30 miles) offshore on February 11 as the possible source of what environmental groups are calling a disaster for wildlife.

“We will … use all means until we find the environmental perpetrator responsible for the pollution,” Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said in a statement.

Israel did not provide details of the ship. A Greek Coast Guard official who declined to be named said Athens had not received any official request from Israel to inspect a Greek ship.

Read: Oil spill off Israel coast reaches Lebanon’s shores

Volunteers, and thousands of soldiers, have been gathering daily on Israel’s beaches to remove the clumps of sticky black tar, which have also been washing up in southern Lebanon.

On Friday, the office of the Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said in a statement that the ministers of defence, environment and administrative development, and the National Council for Scientific Research have been assigned to follow up on the issue.

According to the statement, “the sticky black deposits” that appeared on Israeli beaches have now reached a nature reserve in Tyre, southern Lebanon.