Israel arrested 22 suspects Friday in connection to raging fires that engulfed the northern half of the country for nearly a week.
“There is a price to crime, and there is a price for terror and incitement, and we will exact it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday. While some of the fires may be naturally occurring due to dry weather conditions, Israeli officials believe at least half of them were deliberate acts of arson. Netyanahu told reporters Thursday “in our opinion it is terror for all intents and purposes.”
The suspects’ affiliation with terrorist groups are unclear. Reports indicate an al-Qaida-linked Palestinian terrorist organization, Ma’sadat al-Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attacks Thursday. The terrorist group justified the alleged act saying it was a message that Jews should “return from whence they came since they have no place among us.”
“Whoever burns down the country cannot be a citizen of the country, and their citizenship status should be revoked,” Israel’s Minister of Culture said after the apparent attack. Such rhetoric is generally reserved for terrorist incidents conducted by Israeli citizens of Palestinian origins, The New York Times notes.
The wildfires mostly devastated the northern city of Haifa, where nearly 60,000 Israeli citizens were forced to evacuate their homes. While the majority returned, Israeli officials believe 2,000 homes were damaged in the fires. In total, the fires burned nearly 32,000 acres, marking one of the largest fires in Israel’s history.
Israeli officials authorized a stipend for affected families to use on hotels, while the remainder of the damage is assessed. “It’s not an easy task to assess the damage but it is our duty to help residents rebuild their lives,” Israel’s Finance Minister said in a statement.
“It’s safe to assume that whoever is setting the fires isn’t doing it only out of pyromania,” Israel’s police chief Roni Alsheich told reporters Friday. “It’s safe to assume that if it is arson it is politically motivated,” Alsheich elaborated.
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