Oil spill causes one of Israel’s worst environmental disasters

Oil gushed from a broken oil pipeline in an Israeli desert reserve Wednesday night, causing what officials said was one of the country’s worst environmental disasters.

The spill occurred in the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline near the Evrona reserve, on the Israel-Jordan border. Millions of liters of oil escaped in the rupture, which happened while workers were performing maintenance on the pipeline, Reuters and The Guardian reported.

Three people were hospitalized after inhaling fumes from the spill.

(Photo credit: Ran Lior, Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection)