Six minors arrested for starting fire near Acre

After spotting smoke near the Arab Israeli town of Kafr Yasif, police detain culprits fleeing the scene

By ToI Staff 27 November 2016, 10:39 pm

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Israelis drive past a fire raging through the northern Israeli port city of Haifa on November 24, 2016. (Jack Guez/AFP)

The Israel Police arrested six minors Sunday who started a fire near the Arab Israeli town of Kafr Yasif in northern Israel in an apparent act of arson.

Officers in the area spotted smoke coming from the bushes near Route 70 and, upon arriving at the scene, saw a vehicle driving away, police said in a statement.

Police stopped the car and detained the six minors in the vehicle, all of them from the local Arab region of Jadeidi-Makr. A firefighting plane arrived soon after and extinguished the fire.

The minors were being questioned at the Acre district police station. On Monday, police will decide whether to release them or continue to hold them for questioning, police said.

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In a statement on Sunday, police said they suspect that some 30-40 of the 90 fires that have swept the country in the past six days were started by arsonists, according to Hebrew media reports.

Police also said that although much of the evidence was destroyed by the fires, they were using forensic samples to determine whether the fires were ignited intentionally.

A photograph of a camera showing what appears to be a Palestinian man starting a fire in a field near Battir, outside of Bethlehem on November 26, 2016. (Parks Authority)

However, police have not yet found any evidence that the arson was coordinated nationally or planned in advance. Their assessment is that the arson was local and opportunistic, the statement said.

Since Tuesday, firefighters have been battling wildfires throughout the country, including fires that hit the city of Haifa on Thursday, forcing some 60,000 residents to evacuate their homes. The residents have since been cleared to return home, though about 600 houses have been damaged.

Police chief Roni Alsheich said Sunday that there had been similar arson attacks in the past and that they should be considered acts of terror, Army Radio reported.

“If setting the fire was deliberate, it is definitely terror,” Alsheich said during a visit to the West Bank settlement of Halamish, where a fire destroyed 18 homes on Friday night. “By the way, that is nothing new, there have been arson incidents in the past. The concentration of a relatively large number of days, and the number of incidents and the weather conditions, brought about these results, but there is nothing new and there were incidents like this in the past.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan, police chief Roni Alsheich, Minister of Construction Yoav Galant and Minister of Interior Arye Deri during a briefing in Haifa, where a major fire was raging, November 24, 2016. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Alsheich said the security services are equipped to deal with terror and hinted that Israel was prepared to employ more stringent measures if necessary.

“We have good tools for dealing with terror — we haven’t yet taken advantage of them; we will review things and if we think that the measures are lacking we will demand them… There are sufficient measures in the Israeli book of laws.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday there was “no doubt” some of the fires were started deliberately. “There is a price to pay for the crimes committed, there is a price to pay for arson terrorism,” he said.