More than 60,000 dunams (14,830 acres) of land have been burned since the start of the year, 45,000 (11,120 acres) of them since the beginning of the month, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority reports.
This exceeds the 25,000 dunams (6,200 acres) of forest destroyed by fire in the Jerusalem Hills in 2021, and even the more than 50,000 dunams (12,000 acres) that went up in flames in the Carmel Nature Reserve in northern Israel in 2010, taking the lives of 44 people.
Half the affected areas, ignited by rockets from the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon, are in nature reserves and national parks in the Galilee and Golan Heights in northern Israel, with the rest in other open areas and forests in the region.
With Israel heading for a weekend heatwave, the authority reminds the public that lighting fires in open areas is prohibited.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this