PM lashes out as fires in Israel stoke tensions

Fiery terror claims fly amid battle to douse the flames

ISRAELI police said yesterday they had arrested 12 people on suspicion of arson after massive wildfires tore through central and northern Israel, forcing the evacuation of about 80 000 people in the city of Haifa and destroying hundreds of homes.

Firefighters kept battling the flames in wooded hills around Jerusalem and in northern areas, with support from Palestinian firemen and emergency teams from Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, Russia and Turkey.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had also accepted offers of help from Egypt and Jordan. Netanyahu said arson appeared to be responsible for some fires and accused those behind them of terrorism. Unseasonably dry weather and easterly winds helped kindle the conflagration, which started on Tuesday and stretches across half the country.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a dozen people were detained either while attempting to set fires or fleeing but he provided no further details.

Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said they were “minorities”, an allusion to either Arab Israeli citizens or Palestinians. “The highest likelihood is that the motive is nationalistic,” Erdan told Army Radio.

The fires are the biggest in the country since 2010, when 44 people died in a massive blaze in the north. Investigators concluded that fire was caused by negligence.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of a far-right party, said on Thursday the fires could not have been started by Jews and yesterday blamed them on “nationalist terrorists”, a reference in Israel to Palestinians.

“There is no coincidental ‘wave of fires’,” he wrote on Twitter. “There is a nationalist terrorist wave by fire terrorists meant to murder civilians and cause fright.”

There has been no official response from Palestinian leaders. But Ayman Odeh, a leading Israeli Arab politician from Haifa, rejected the suggestion Arabs were responsible and accused the Israeli government of taking advantage of the situation to incite against the Arab minority.

Nearly a third of the residents of Haifa, a coastal city of about 250 000 people, including a large Arab population, spent the night in shelters and nearby towns and villages after being ordered to leave on Thursday in the face of walls of flame.

Smoke billowed over the city yesterday as firefighters worked to douse the remaining fires. City officials said the situation was under control but at least 700 homes were badly damaged or destroyed.

Israel’s chief of police said on Thursday people may have decided to start fires after seeing the trouble they were causing. “We’re in an area where if someone sees on the news there is an opportunity, he can take advantage of the opportunity,” said Roni Alsheich.

An Israeli army spokesperson said forces a Palestinian man had been caught trying to set a fire near the Israeli settlement of Kochav Yaakov on the West Bank.

Police said one man from the Bedouin village of Rahat in southern Israel had been arrested for incitement after posting a message on Facebook calling on others to start fires. – Reuters