Hundreds of Israelis suffer health problems as hit by sandstorm

A rare sandstorm that is battering Israel and the Middle East entered its third day Thursday, covering the country with a thick yellowish-brown dust and making hundreds of people sick.

Israel's emergency medical services, the Magen David Adom, reported that at least 630 Israelis have been treated for shortness of breath and a deterioration of existing heart diseases as a result of the sandstorm.

The Health Ministry renewed Thursday its warning, calling the public to refrain from strained physical activity and advising elderly people, children and pregnant women to stay indoors.

A hit wave added to the already difficult weather conditions, with electricity demands hitting all-time high on Wednesday.

The Environmental Protection Ministry said that unusually high pollution levels were recorded throughout the country, with 1,458 micrograms per cubic meter recorded in Jerusalem, about 140 times higher than normal days.

Domestic airlines renewed their flights Thursday, after canceling all their flight on Monday.

A huge cloud of dust has been spreading over large parts of the Middle Ease since Monday, engulfing parts of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Cyprus. The storm cost the lives of at least 12 people in the region.

On Wednesday, the storm was heading towards Egypt, where four ports in the Gulf of Suez were closed due to the poor weather conditions.

The unusual weather baffled climate experts, who are still struggling to explain what triggered it. Prof. Uri Dayan, an expert on dust storms from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told Xinhua that some have been linking the storm to the war in Syria.

He said heavy movement of forces or farmers who were forced to fled their lands and stopped irrigating their fields, may have caused the arid terrain more prone to dust storms.

Head of Israel's Meteorological Service's Climate Department, Dr. Amos Porat, told the Jerusalem Post that there have been no reports of such heavy haze in early September since the country began recording weather measurements 75 years ago

Prof. Dayan said that what surprised scientists most was the length and timing of the sandstorm.

Now we are towards the end of the summer, so it's very early for a dust storm," he said, adding that previous dust storms in this country typically last no more than a 24 hours.

The unexpected weather was caused by dust from Syria, drifting south-west towards northern Jordan and Israel, said Prof. Dayan. This drift coincided with days of calm weather, with no winds or rains, resulting in an unusually long sandstorm.

According to Israel's Meteorological Service, the sandstorm is expected to begin to gradually subside on Saturday. Endit