Iranian attack hits Israeli oil refinery in Haifa, some damage reported

JERUSALEM, March 19 (Reuters) – An Iranian missile attack hit Israel’s Oil Refineries in the northern port city of Haifa but did not cause “significant damage”, Israel’s Energy Ministry said on Thursday.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen said power was briefly disrupted, with electricity restored to most of those who were affected.

“The damage to the power grid in the north is localized and not significant,” Cohen said. “Also, in the barrage towards the north, there was no significant damage to Israeli infrastructure sites.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted refineries in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, and in Ashdod, in the country’s south, “along with a range of security targets and military support centres of the Zionist regime”, which it said “were hit by pinpoint missiles”.

There was no immediate word on whether the Ashdod refinery was hit.

Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said debris from a missile that was intercepted fell in Haifa and was being examined as a hazardous materials incident.

Israel Electric Corp said a power line in the Haifa area was hit by shrapnel, causing a brief outage, but that electricity was restored to all customers within about 45 minutes.

Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said debris fell in two locations at Oil Refineries and caused a fire that disconnected supply sources but there were no casualties.

“Full control has been achieved over the impact incident at the Haifa refineries,” it said after examining the site for hazardous materials. “Tests carried out by monitoring teams found no abnormal air values and there is no danger to the public.”

Last June, Oil Refineries in Haifa was hit by an Iranian missile, which killed three people and halted operations.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer, Yomna Ehab and Enas ALashray; Editing by Alison Williams and Diane Craft)