Ashdod firefighting services announced Thursday evening that a pungent smell that residents complained of in the morning hours had come from a factory in the city's industrial zone.
Many residents complained that they smelled a strong odor, like that of cooking gas. Some also said that they experienced burning in their eyes and several schoolchildren said they felt bad. Some city residents took their children home from school because of the situation.
The Ashdod municipality announced at a certain point in the day that the smell had come from a ship that was offloading materials at sea, and that the city had “gone back to its routine” once the smell disappeared. This theory was discounted, however. An investigation by fire crews and experts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection looked into the possibility that a gas drilling platform stationed in the sea opposite Ashdod was leaking gas.
This, too, turned out not to be the case – and the gas was found to be coming from the industrial zone.