Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that 18 people had been arrested on suspicion of starting fires outside Jerusalem, with one allegedly caught in the act of arson, as the country battled possibly its worst ever wildfires.
“This is perhaps the largest fire ever in the country,” Jerusalem’s district fire department commander Shmulik Friedman told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
While the exact cause of the fires near Latrun was still unclear, Mr Netanyahu said the blaze was “not a simple thing”.
“There is harm to nature and also harm to people, and we are holding 18 people at the moment who are suspected of arson, one of whom was caught in the act,” he said.
The Jerusalem Post earlier reported that a 50-year-old man had been arrested for allegedly trying to start a fire near southern Jerusalem.
The man, from the Umm Tuba Palestinian Arab neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, was reportedly caught with a lighter, cotton wool and other flammable materials after police received a tip-off.
Two other people had been arrested along with him, the news outlet said, without providing details. They were suspected of either starting or exacerbating the fires.
The wildfires near Jerusalem have forced evacuations and road closures and prompted Mr Netanyahu to declare a national emergency and request international aid. The fires started on Wednesday, spread rapidly due to strong winds and scorched vast forested areas.
Fires burned along Route 1 to Tel Aviv, prompting panic as people fled on foot. More than a dozen people were hospitalised, among them two pregnant women and two infants, according to the national emergency service Magen David Adom.
Authorities, however, said it was too early to definitively determine whether the fires were deliberately caused. Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir asked for military helicopters to assist in evacuating people from affected areas.
He hinted that arson could be behind the fires and urged security services to classify any arsonist as a domestic terrorist. Mr Netanyahu warned the western wind could push the fires towards the outskirts of Jerusalem, “and even into the city itself”.
“We need to bring as many fire engines as possible and create firebreaks well beyond the current fire lines,” the Israeli leader said in a video statement.
“We are now in a national emergency, not just a local one. The priority right now is defending Jerusalem.”
Although authorities allowed some evacuated residents to return home on Thursday, they warned of a possible resurgence of wildfires due to rising temperatures and winds.
The arrests coincided with Independence Day on 1 May. Shin Bet, the domestic security agency, said it was aiding police in the search for other suspects who might have ignited some of the fires.
The Fire and Rescue Services urged the public to avoid parks and forests and exercise extreme caution with barbecues as Independence Day, usually celebrated with family cookouts, coincided with heightened fire risk.
Several countries, including Italy, Croatia, France, Spain and Romania, said they were sending firefighting aircraft to assist Israel.
Israeli officials said 10 firefighting planes were active on Thursday morning, with eight more expected to arrive throughout the day.
Fire chief Eyal Caspi warned that “our aircraft can’t do anything right now due to the weather conditions”. “Our goal is to save lives,” he said. “We are apparently facing the largest fire in Israel in a decade.”
Yuval Aharoni, 40, a resident of Modiin, told AFP: “It’s just very sad because we knew the weather, we kind of knew that would happen, and still we feel like they weren’t ready enough with the big planes that can drop large amounts of water.”
Zvi Sukkot, a far-right lawmaker, sent a letter asking Mr Netanyahu to impose a curfew on Palestinian villages in the West Bank.
“There is a real concern, based on past experience, that Palestinians will try to ignite more fires in Judea and Samaria and throughout Israel,” he said, using the biblical name for the area.
“To prevent such occurrences, a curfew must be imposed immediately on Judea and Samaria, and a blockade must be imposed on the Palestinian villages.”
There were conflicting reports and unconfirmed rumours about the origin of the fire, but authorities say the cause is still under investigation.
The police said they had deployed in force around the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway and in the Jerusalem Hills, asking the public to “avoid travelling to the area”.
