Firefighters work to extinguish forest fire near Kibbutz Harel, May 23, 2019.
Firefighters work to extinguish forest fire near Kibbutz Harel, May 23, 2019.Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Israel Police officers on Friday morning arrested an Arab who was documented setting fire to a number of locations in Jerusalem's Mount Scopus area, 0404 News reported.

The suspect was identified by lookouts and his actions were documented. Forces called to the area searched for and located the suspect, arresting him.

A security source told 0404 News that the arson was nationalistically motivated.

Separately, Walla! reported that Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael believes the Ben Shemen Forest fire, which devoured at least 30% of the forest, may have been arson. However, the investigation is still ongoing and official conclusions have not been released.

In addition to the Ben Shemen fire, thousands of dunams of forest in both the Eshtaol and Tsor'a areas have been destroyed.

Some of the fires in the Jerusalem area were caused by falling electric wires, Walla! added.