Fire service denies wildfires in south sparked by Gaza incendiary balloons

Farmers in communities bordering Gaza report three wildfires — two on Monday, one on Tuesday — which they blame on incendiary balloons from the Strip.

The fire service, however, denies the blazes were sparked by Gaza balloons, instead attributing them to unrelated acts of arson.

Fire in a field in in southern Israel, May 25, 2021 (Channel 12 screenshot)

Hagi Avni, a volunteer fireman at Kibbutz Be’eri, near the Gaza border, tells Channel 12 that the fire services, which are also ascribing the fires to electrical faults, are not telling the truth.

“Maybe there’s an instruction from on high not to publicize that there are incendiary balloons [from Gaza],” he says, “because the equation was supposed to change.”