(Dubai) Toxic emissions and fuel leaks: Recent Israeli strikes on a Yemeni port held by Houthi rebels have added to pollution in an area already hit by oil spills and chemical spills, environmentalists say.
On July 20, Israel carried out an airstrike – the first claimed in Yemen – on the strategic port of Hodeida, the main entry point for various goods and humanitarian aid to rebel-held areas. It came two days after a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv that left one person dead.
Since November, Iranian-backed rebels have been carrying out attacks on ships said to be linked to Israel off the coast of Yemen in “support” of the Palestinians in the Gaza war, and have also fired missiles at Israeli towns, most of which have been intercepted.
The Israeli attack on Saturday, which left nine dead and dozens injured, according to the latest official report, caused huge fires that devoured a large part of the Houthis’ fuel stocks.
“The fire and associated spills have generated hazardous emissions into the air and substantial contamination of the soil,” with a “probable” impact on the marine environment, noted the British NGO Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS), which studies the consequences of conflicts on the environment.
The raid resulted in “a significant oil spill from burning fuel tanks,” said in a statement the human rights organization Mwatana, a Yemeni NGO which sent a team to the scene.
After nearly a decade of war between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government, Yemen, one of the countries in the region most vulnerable to climate change, is already suffering from severe air and water pollution, according to a report released in March by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Risk for ‘millions’ of people
Wim Zwijnenburg, of the Dutch NGO PAX, which works for world peace, said the Israeli strikes had resulted in “the burning of at least tens of thousands of litres of oil”.
Based on images from the European Sentinel-2 satellite, the expert said the attack caused “localised spills” of fuel around the port.
Fishing communities in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country rely heavily on the sea for their livelihoods and coastal pollution “risks affecting millions of people,” warned Farah Al Hattab of Greenpeace Middle East.
Before this raid, Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden had already caused significant pollution.
Recently, a Liberian-flagged oil tanker leaked fuel after being hit by a rebel strike about 180 kilometers northwest of Hodeidah. A 220-kilometer oil trail was spotted near the strike site, threatening the Farasan Marine Sanctuary off Yemen and Saudi Arabia, according to CEOBS.
The NGO estimated that at least 500 barrels of oil were spilled into the sea, adding that the slick was visible six days after the attack and was threatening corals and marine ecosystems.
A few months earlier, another ship, the Rubymarflying the Belize flag, hit by the Houthis, sank with its cargo of 21,000 tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer after leaking fuel.
These episodes are undermining international efforts to prevent an environmental catastrophe in Yemen.
Last year, the United Nations successfully transferred 1.14 million barrels of crude oil from the FSO Safer, a 48-year-old tanker abandoned without maintenance as fighting raged in Yemen, to another ship, averting the immediate threat of a massive spill.