Environmental Damage in the Middle East

Human deaths and injuries are not the only measure of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. A forest in northern Israel has been devastated by Hezbollah rocket fire, but the longest-lasting environmental consequence of the fighting may be the Lebanese coast. Mediterranean Sea beaches are blackened and fish and animals are endangered by a massive oil spill that began early in the fighting. Wael Hmaidan, former Greenpeace campaigner for the Arab World, is coordinator of the Oil Spill Working Group for environmental organizations in Lebanon.