Israel Arrests 22 Over Wildfires, as Arson Is Suspected
(Could it happen here?)
Israel Arrests 22 Over Wildfires, as Arson Is Suspected
JERUSALEM — Twenty-two people have been arrested on suspicion of arson or incitement to arson, security officials said on Friday, as Israel continued to battle its worst wildfires in years.
The fires, which began on Tuesday, have erupted throughout the country, blazing through parched forests, incinerating scores of homes and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. Two prisons were also evacuated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that “a considerable number” of the fires were set and described them as “terror,” a term usually given to militant attacks by Palestinians.
“There is a price to crime, and there is a price for terror and incitement, and we will exact it,” Mr. Netanyahu said while on a tour of the Hatzor military base, according to local news reports. “The instructions are to prosecute anyone committing these acts so that all can see that anyone who tries to burn down the state of Israel will face the fullest punishment.”
The “consensus is that this is arson,” Israel’s public security minister, Gilad Erdan, told journalists on Friday. In one instance, Mr. Erdan said, his forces had found evidence that gasoline was used to start a fire in Zikhron Yaaqov, a town in northern Israel. A man from a Jerusalem was arrested with fire-making materials, he said.The “consensus is that this is arson,” Israel’s public security minister, Gilad Erdan, told journalists on Friday. In one instance, Mr. Erdan said, his forces had found evidence that gasoline was used to start a fire in Zikhron Yaaqov, a town in northern Israel. A man from a Jerusalem was arrested with fire-making materials, he said.