In big fires across Israel, 12 arrested as suspects

Officials and politicians said that at least half of the fires, which raged from the Jerusalem area to the north of country, had been started intentionally for nationalist reasons.

More than 60,000 people from Israel’s northern city of Haifa were evacuated from their homes Thursday and yesterday, as firefighters battle massive blazes that have gripped the country for three days.

Police chief Roni Alsheich said if the fires were started deliberately it was “safe to assume.it is politically-motivated”.

Hundreds of homes were damaged and in a rare move, Israel called up military reservists to join overstretched police and firefighters and made use of an global fleet of firefighting aircraft sent by several countries. Local media reported that a supertanker firefighting plane would arrive from the United States in 24 hours.

It’s the world’s largest fire-fighting aircraft that is capable of carrying 75 tonnes of fire retardant. Palestinians had joined the efforts, sending 41 firefighters and eight trucks.

Netanyahu blamed terrorists for igniting the fires, warning that whoever tries to burn parts of Israel will be punished severely.

“There is a price to crime, and there is a price for terror and incitement, and we will exact it”, he said.

“We are facing arsonist terror”.

Arab lawmakers reacted angrily to the accusation, saying such statements were inciting against the country’s Arab minority.

Israeli police arrested 13 people on Friday on suspicion of arson.

The fires are the worst to hit Israel since 2010 when 42 people died in a forest region south of Haifa. The incident led to a reform in the firefighting services, including the establishment of an airborne firefighting squadron.

According to Haaretz, tens of thousands of people have been fleeing the northern city of Haifa as the flames continue to spread.

Greece, Croatia, Italy, the Greek Cypriot administration and Russian Federation have also all offered to send a combined total of 10 planes to help extinguish the blazes. “We’re seeing them operating in small teams and who knows whether they intercommunicate, which they don’t necessarily need to be doing” to keep causing fires. Reports state that the fire is spreading at a rapid rate and are threatening homes near Jerusalem and the West Bank.