Arab arson season is in full bloom in Israel: sources in the fire department and the Zevulun precinct police told Arutz Sheva that the fires set Thursday are the result of arson.
Several blazes broke out Thursday. One, near Sha'ar HaAmakim, in the southeastern approach to Haifa, was spreading toward Tivon in the afternoon. The residents of three streets were evacuated from their homes: Zevulun, Kakal and Carmel streets. Residents of an old age home were also evacuated. Two homes were reportedly damaged but no one was hurt.
Planes from the fire fighting aerial squadron set up after the disastrous 2010 Carmel fire and more than 30 fire fighting teams from Haifa and the vicinity were fighting the blaze. The 2010 Carmel fire killed – or perhaps murdered – 44 people.
A large fire blazed in the same region Wednesday, but Thursday's fire did not break out in the same place.
Outside Jerusalem, near Even Sapir, the fire that burned Wednesday reignited and was brought under control after dozens of local residents were evacuated from their homes in the western part of the community.
In addition, a fire broke out near an IDF ammunition depot in the Rehovot area, near Tel Nof. No one was hurt. Fire crews were able to bring the blaze under control in a relatively short time.
While high temperatures and irresponsibility by campers are always potential causes of fires, it is a well known fact that Arabs intentionally set fires as an easy way of terrorizing Jews and destroying their property. Arab inciters have called on Arabs to do just this, on more than one occasion.
When a fire broke out near Jerusalem six weeks ago, Major General Niso Shaham, who was then Commander of the Jerusalem Police, told a Channel 2 reporter that there is currently a plethora of arson attacks in the Jerusalem area. The reporter said that fire fighters told him that there were several incidents of arson every day in the Jerusalem area alone, and Shaham did not deny this.
Arabs have been documented setting fires to fields in Judea and Samaria, where this is a common practice of theirs.
MK Yaakov Katz has submitted a bill that would mandate a minimum five-year sentence for people convicted of nationalist arson. Other than him, however, relatively few people dare name the culprits everyone suspects.