West Bank settlement evacuated in 5th day of Israeli fires

Fire also broke out near the West Bank settlements of Dolev, Alfei Menashe and Karnei Shomron although there were no evacuations there.

Egyptian military sources told Ma’an that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered urgent aid to be sent to Israel, noting that Egypt has also sent large quantities of fire extinguishing material to Israel.

Most of the fires were under control by Friday, officials said.

“Things can change and develop as we speak”, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

They got a major boost Saturday with the arrival from the United States of the Boeing 747-400 “Supertanker”, the world’s largest fire-fighting aircraft that is capable of carrying 75 tons of fire retardant.

The cause of the fires has not been ascertained, but Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh said Thursday, Nov. 24, that “several” individuals have been arrested on suspicion of arson.

Canadair Turkish, Greek, Croatian and two Beriev be-200 Russian giants arrived to help small Israeli aircraft to fight the flames, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. Making matters worse is a unsafe vacuum within the worldwide community as crises elsewhere claim the attention of world leaders. “Its mobilisation proves that in times of crisis we can count on many friends in this region and beyond”. Fearing the repetition of a deadly 2010 blaze in which 44 people died, the port-city of Haifa, which has suffered the most, declared a state of emergency.

Israeli officials have suggested, however, that Arabs or Palestinians may be to blame for some of the blazes.

Arab Israelis make up about 17.5 percent of the country’s population.

Eliyahu’s response was: “The Prime Minister has defined arson as an act of terrorism”.

Police have not disclosed the identities of the suspects arrested so far.

Transportation in Israel’s largest cities was hindered by the fires, which continue to be under investigation.

“The prime minister described the arson as terrorism.it’s a miracle that people weren’t burned alive, but we don’t rely on miracles”.

A view that was echoed by Naftali Bennett, education minister, and leader of the settler party Jewish Home, who blamed the fired on “nationalist terrorists”, adding that the fires could not have been started by Jews.

With fires burning in the forests west of Jerusalem, around Haifa, on central and northern hilltops and in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the government sought assistance from neighboring countries to tackle the conflagration. Some posts linked the fires to current proposed Israeli legislation that could ban loudspeakers broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer, suggesting the fires were a punishment from God and sparking the controversial #israelisburning hashtag on Twitter.