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Ministry sets up inflatable barriers around tanker, cleaning up spill; warns that further similar leaks could endanger region’s unique coral reefs
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.
Moscow blasts pope over ‘cruel’ Russian minorities jab
Pope Francis in an interview published yesterday says that some of the “cruelest” actors among Russia’s ranks in Ukraine “are not of the Russian tradition,” but minorities like “the Chechens, the Buryati and so on.”
Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reports that Moscow’s ambassador to the Vatican had lodged an official complaint in response.
“I expressed indignation at such insinuations and noted that nothing can shake the cohesion and unity of the multinational Russian people,” Russian ambassador to the Vatican Alexander Avdeev tells the agency.
Moscow was accused in September of drawing disproportionately from ethnic minorities in Siberia and in its Caucasus region when the Kremlin announced a draft of hundreds of thousands of men to the military.
Kremlin critics say minorities from impoverished and isolated regions are dying are in larger numbers in Ukraine compared to ethnic Russians.
But they have also been accused in Ukraine of playing outsized roles in places like Bucha, where the Russian military allegedly killed civilians.
Kohavi condemns Druze soldiers who threw bomb at Palestinian home as act of revenge
Military chief Aviv Kohavi condemns an incident of Druze soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces allegedly hurling an explosive device at a Palestinian home in the West Bank.
“This is a serious act that goes against the values of the IDF. This is not our way,” Kohavi says during a military conference held yesterday.
“We must condemn such behavior,” he adds.
Three soldiers from the Druze community were arrested over the incident, raising suspicions that it was related to the case of Druze teenager Tiran Fero, whose body was seized by Palestinian gunmen from a West Bank hospital after a car crash last week.
The detentions of two of the suspects are extended until Sunday.
Environment Ministry working to contain small oil leak from tanker in Eilat
A small amount of fuel leaks from an oil tanker anchored at the Europe Asia Pipeline Company’s (EAPC) oil terminal in the southern city of Eilat.
The Environmental Protection Ministry reports that the leak has been contained by barriers placed around the tanker.
Marine inspectors from the ministry are currently at the site to guide those involved in treating and removing the spill.
The Gulf of Eilat is home to sensitive coral reefs, which underpin the city of Eilat’s tourism industry.
A ministry statement says, “This incident emphasizes once again that oil pollution incidents can and do occur all the time, and emphasizes the importance of the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s policy of zero additional risk in the Gulf of Eilat.”
