Remand extended for suspect in church arson

Nazareth District Court orders the extension of the remand of a detainee suspected of setting fire to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes in the Galilee in July, which left the church badly damaged. The judge rules that there is enough evidence pointing to suspect Yinon Reuveni’s involvement in the arson attack to detain him until the end of procedings, Israel Radio reports.

Of five suspects in the arson attack, three have already been indicted.

A series of arrests over the past couple of weeks came as the government declared a crackdown on fundamentalist Jewish ideologues in the wake of a deadly arson attack in a Palestinian village in the West Bank on July 31 that left a father and his baby son dead — and was thought to have been carried out by Jews.

A priest inspects the damage caused to the Church of the Multiplication at Tabgha, on the Sea of Galilee, in northern Israel, which was set on fire in what police suspect was an arson attack, June 18, 2015. (Basel Awidat/Flash90)

Israel has approved the detention without trial for six months of three Jewish activists — Meir Ettinger, the grandson of the late Israeli-American ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane; Mordechai Mayer; and Eviatar Slonim. Ettinger has been linked by the Shin Bet to the arson attack on the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes as well.