Firefighters are still working to control the large fire blazing the Trans-Israel energy pipeline in Ashkelon, after a rocket from Gaza hit a container at the plant during the rocket fire Tuesday evening.
It is believed that the blaze, whose flames rose hundreds of feet into the air Tuesday night, may take several days to completely extinguish. Millions of gallons of oil are believed to be held in the container, and the Home Front Command Center has called on residents nearby to avoid leaving their homes, to avoid breathing the toxic chemicals in the air.
US energy corporation Chevron said it had shut down the Tamar natural gas platform off the Israeli coast on the instructions of the Energy Ministry on Wednesday. Israel said its energy needs would continue to be met.
It is believed that the oil in the containers had come recently from the United Arab Emirates, as part of an oil delivery agreement with the country that began just weeks earlier. It has also been suggested that the container may have been pierced by new, heavier rockets that Hamas introduced in the latest round of fighting.
The Trans-Israel pipeline has an interesting history. The line runs from Eilat, on the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern tip of the Red Sea, through the Negev Desert region, on to Ashkelon, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea.
It was built in 1968 in a joint venture with Iran, during a time when the two countries had close relations, and was intended to transport crude oil from the Islamic Republic to customers in Europe and Israel.
The pipeline was a lifeline for both countries when Egypt closed the Suez Canal in 1967, and Iran had no other way to complete deliveries to Europe. However, that cooperation was canceled when the 1979 Islamic Revolution led the shah of Iran to sever all ties with the Jewish state.
In the ensuing years, the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company, which was still 50% owned by Iran, was used in different capacities. Under an arrangement reached with Russia in 2003, the company reversed the pipeline’s direction in order to deliver oil from Novorossiysk to Ashkelon, pipe it through to Eilat and then ship it on to Asian markets.
Starting in 1994, Iran began suing Israel in international courts, claiming it was owed money for EAPC’s revenues and assets. A Swiss court ruled in 2016 that Israel owed Iran $1.1 billion plus interest for its share in the company. Israel never paid, citing the Trading with the Enemy Act.
The pipeline has long been the subject of criticism by environmentalists, and has been party to several of Israel’s worst ecological disasters over the years, including the massive Nahal Zin oil spill of 2011 and the Evrona Nature Reserve oil spill in 2014.
After the Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates last year, an agreement was reached to transport Emirati oil from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean through the pipeline. The first oil deliveries from the UAE reached Eilat just weeks before the current round of violence with Gaza.
Reuters contributed to this report.