All facilities at Haifa oil refinery shut down after deadly Iran missile strike

The Bazan Group said Monday that all facilities at its oil refinery in the Haifa Bay have been shut down as a result of an Iranian missile strike the night before that killed three people on site.

In a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Bazan said that “as a result of damage to the facilities, the power plant was significantly damaged, and therefore all of the refinery’s and subsidiary companies’ facilities were shut down.”

Bazan said it is working with the Israel Electric Company to resume electric supply to the facility.

Meanwhile, Dani Avraham, 59, from Kiryat Motzkin, became the first of the three victims in the attack to be publicly identified.

He was a father of two who worked for the refinery and was remembered by the Kiryat Motzkin municipality as a “modest man, dedicated and respected, who worked in the energy industry for more than 30 years and was always willing to help even in difficult times.”

The targeted facility, home to a distinctive cooling tower that looms over the densely populated Haifa Bay, has for years been threatened with attack by Israel’s adversaries, including Iranian proxy Hezbollah. It has never been known to have suffered a direct hit in the past.

הותר לפרסום: דני אברהם, בן 59 מקריית מוצקין, הוא אחד מ-3 ההרוגים במתקני בזןhttps://t.co/OpP2ggznpE pic.twitter.com/w59cAF85j8

— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) June 16, 2025

In October, Hezbollah published a video purporting to show one of its drones flying over the refinery site and other sensitive installations in the area.

Residents, environmental activists and others have long lobbied for the Bazan facility to be shuttered and moved elsewhere, due to both the heavy pollution it causes to the area and fears of disastrous consequences should it be struck.

In 2022, the government voted to relocate the facility by 2030. Work on the removal of an array of large oil tanks adjacent to the site was set to begin this year.

Voicing the public’s discontent with the situation, Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav told Army Radio on Monday that the government “needs to be brave and take these factories out of residential areas.”

Rescuers attempted for hours to reach the three victims, who were buried under rubble during the attack on the northern city. A fire also broke out at the location, complicating rescue operations.

According to Haaretz, the fire hadn’t been brought under control as of Monday afternoon, and it was unclear when it would be.

תיעוד דרמטי מפגיעת הטיל אמש בבתי הזיקוק במפעל בז”ן שבחיפה https://t.co/b5AIuzLGUB pic.twitter.com/OMbu4DwOFn

— איראניוז (@Hatzaitzan) June 16, 2025

The three weren’t killed in the initial missile impact, but in the subsequent fire. At first, rescuers had been able to communicate with them, the report said, but they lost contact early on in the rescue mission, and fear for their well-being grew as the hours wore on.

It is believed that the cause of death for all three was suffocation, as well as the extreme heat from the fire.

News outlet reported earlier Monday that all three victims residents of Haifa and the nearby Krayot. It said two other workers had been with them when the missile struck, but managed to escape with light injuries.

A ballistic missile attack a night earlier had also caused “localized damage” at the oil facility.

Although the missile strike itself occurred shortly after 4 a.m., it took more than 12 hours for media outlets in Israel to be granted permission to publish any details from it, beyond reporting that three people were killed by a missile strike in Haifa overnight.

International news outlets, meanwhile, were able to report on the location of the strike, and several news outlets, including Al Jazeera, which is banned from the air in Israel, were airing footage from the scene not long after the attack.

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