(Israel Hayom) Efrat Forsher - Israel on Wednesday confiscated illegal Palestinian quarrying machinery in a nature reserve in the Judean Desert, near the Dead Sea. The Palestinians have significantly increased quarrying over the past few months in the upper part of Daraga ravine, systematically destroying the ecosystem in a rare nature reserve. Marco Ben-Shabbat, head of the Civil Administration's inspection unit, said, "In recent months we have identified the construction and attempted construction of dozens of quarries in the area, by greedy individuals who simply go from one place to the next in search of places to dig up. It's unthinkable that a place that has been uninterrupted for 2,000 years was harmed in this way in a matter of months." He noted that the Civil Administration had contacted the Palestinian Authority in an effort to have it prevent the damage to the nature reserve without Israeli intervention, but to no avail.
2017-06-16 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive