Arson suspect arrested as authorities probe whether massive fires were started on purpose
Police apprehend East Jerusalem man with lighter, cotton wool, flammable materials; right-wing officials urge West Bank lockdown amid Palestinian social media calls to start blazes
An arson suspect was arrested Wednesday, as authorities were probing whether major brush fires west of Jerusalem were started intentionally and as calls appeared on Palestinian social media to start more blazes. However, authorities said Wednesday evening it was too early to determine the cause of the fires.
A 50-year-old resident of East Jerusalem’s Umm Tuba neighborhood was arrested on suspicion of attempting to set fire to vegetation in southern Jerusalem, police said.
Law enforcement carried out the arrest after receiving a tip that someone had seen a person attempting to start a fire, a police spokesman said. The suspect was detained for questioning at the Oz police station in East Jerusalem.
Police said the suspect attempted to flee from police officers but was nabbed after a brief pursuit. Cops said they found a lighter, cotton wool and other flammable materials on his person.
The arrest coincided with calls made by Palestinians on social media to carry out arson attacks on Israel during the country’s Independence Day, whose eve coincided this year with a heatwave combined with strong winds that caused the blazes to spiral out of control and resulted in many communities being evacuated and many festive events being called off.
One message on the Palestinian channel Shehab, which is affiliated with Hamas, said: “There are popular calls to set fire to forests near the settlements.” Hamas considers all Jewish communities in Israel and the West Bank, both within and beyond the Green Line, to be settlements.
Another message circulated on X across several accounts stated: “Your role is to set fire to gardens, vehicles and everything around the settlements.”
Responding to the incitement on social media, Zvi Sukkot, a far-right lawmaker from the Religious Zionism party, sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling on him to order that a curfew and lockdown be imposed 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… To prevent such occurrences, a curfew must be imposed immediately on Judea and Samaria, and a blockade must be imposed on the Palestinian villages,” Sukkot wrote, using the West Bank’s biblical name.
Similar calls were issued by settler leader Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, and by Likud MK Dan Illouz.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu was receiving updates and conducting assessments of the firefighting efforts and speaking regularly with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and firefighting and security officials.
The Shin Bet domestic security agency, which is typically tasked with counterterrorism efforts, said in a statement that it was also taking part in the investigation.
The agency is assisting the police with locating other suspects who may have sparked some of the blazes.
Yair Netanyahu, the premier’s son, who is known for inflammatory and conspiratorial statements online, shared posts on Telegram shortly before the Shin Bet’s statement blaming the agency for the fires, amid an extended campaign by the government against the Shin Bet leadership, which is involved in probing potential illicit ties between officials in the premier’s office and Qatar.
“The Shin Bet has been taken hostage by [an anti-government activist] and there is no one to protect the Jewish people from an Arab arson terror attack,” one post read, referring to Shin Bet head Ronen Bar.
Bar announced on Sunday that he would resign from his position on June 15 after a month-long, high-profile legal struggle with the elder Netanyahu, who fired him in March.
Another post shared by the younger Netanyahu said that “the head of the Shin Bet of the High Court of Justice (Ronen Bar)” deals with “persecuting those who know what happened on October 7, clinging to his post, persecuting settlers” instead of “preventing Arab terrorism.” He has peddled baseless conspiracy theories that the Shin Bet had known ahead of time about the planned Hamas onslaught in October 2023 and purposefully chose not to prevent it.
The Times of Israel Community.