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Oil spill in Mediterranean reaches besieged Gaza Strip

An oil spill in the Mediterranean washed up to the shores of the Gaza Strip, threatening the fish wealth and the beach season amid great challenges for government agencies in Gaza to clean the beach given their lack of appropriate resources.
TOPSHOT - Palestinian spear-fishermen prepare to dive with an underwater photographer in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 15, 2020. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Water and Environmental Quality Authority in the Gaza Strip announced March 3 that the oil spill that appeared in the Mediterranean Sea in early February has been washing up on the Gaza beaches, days after it reached the Israeli shores.

It remains unclear what exactly caused the oil spill that has polluted more than 170 kilometers (106 miles) of the Israeli beaches, reached the shores of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, and harmed marine life in the area. Israel believes it was caused by a leak of 200 tons of oil from an oil tanker sailing 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the shores of Israel, Gaza and Lebanon.

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