Residents of a homestead in Gush Etzion managed to film an arson attack on Friday evening after spotting a suspicious individual near the community who had reportedly emerged from the nearby Palestinian Arab town of Si'ir.
According to residents, the community's security coordinator immediately launched a thermal drone after the suspect was detected. The drone reportedly captured the individual setting multiple patches of dry vegetation on fire with a burning rag while adding dry thorns to the flames in an apparent attempt to help the blaze spread with the wind toward the hilltop community.
After realizing she had been spotted, the suspect fled back toward Si'ir. Residents rushed to the scene, alerted security forces, and extinguished the fire before it could spread. As of now, no arrests have been reported.
The Gvaot HaHazit Directorate, an organization representing several communities in Judea and Samaria, said the incident demonstrated the value of recently deployed thermal drones. "Just two weeks ago we were able to provide Maaleh Tidhar and other outposts with thermal drones for maintaining security of the area, and already over the course of the last weekend the residents, with the help of the drones, thwarted an arson attack in real time," the organization said.
The directorate also urged security authorities to take arson attacks more seriously. "Without the drone footage, there would likely have been someone in the security establishment who would argue that this was not deliberate arson, but once again it has been proven that this is terror in every sense of the word. A whole town went up in flames, and only by a stroke of luck did the fire not claim human lives. The security establishment must wake up and address the arson threat with full seriousness."