Two major fires that raged in Galilee forests Sunday were apparently caused by arson, Jewish National Fund head Effie Stenzler said. A fire in Bar'am burned more than 500 dunams of forest, and the other fire, in Biriya, burned another 100 dunams.
Over the past three months, fires have scorched an estimated 20,000 dunams of land, causing tens of millions of shekels in damage.
The JNF spends more than 20 million shekels each year fighting forest fires, according to Stenzler.
Fires broke out last week as well, and spread quickly due to a severe heat wave Tuesday, which was coupled with winds. A massive fire raged near the city of Beit Shemesh on Tuesday. Firefighting crews fought for hours to contain the blaze, and four firefighters were injured from smoke inhalation.
The fire was eventually put out, but consumed an estimated 3,000 dunams of land and damaged five homes. Firefighters suspect arson in that case as well.
A second fire broke out Tuesday near the Galilee town of Karmiel. Several firefighting crews worked together to extinguish the blaze. Crews suspect that the Karmiel blaze was also the result of arson.
JNF workers assisted firefighters in both cases.
Police have yet to detain suspects in either case. Past such attacks have been revealed as cases of "arson terrorism," in which Arab nationalist groups set fires in order to cause harm to the Jewish state.
Arson has been used as a means of terrorism for several decades. Many dozens of fires have been attributed to terrorist arsonists in recent years, including dozens of forest fires set last year, a fire in an Akko yeshiva, fires that damaged Kever Yosef (Joseph's Tomb) near Shechem, a blaze that destroyed homes in the town of Havat Gilad, and several fires at the Yad Yair synagogue in Binyamin.