Minister of Environmental Protection Gila Gamliel warned on Wednesday of a catastrophic event in the Haifa port chemical deposits a day after a massive blast shook the Lebanese capital of Beirut in an event believed to have stemmed from similar storage units.
"The problem is that there is a very concentrated population in the area, placing factories with dangerous substances there could be life-threatening," said Gamliel. "The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the defense establishment are monitoring the port, but there could also be an accident due to negligence or, God forbid, a missile strike on the relevant places."