Incendiary intifada

Israel battles unprecedented fires and new manifestation of terrorism

13 people were arrested on suspicion of arson. Only in Haifa, 600 buildings were damaged, 165 people were taken to hospitals with minor burns and carbon monoxide poisoning. The whole country is covered by local fires. Burning settlements from Jerusalem to Lower Galilee.

Haifa residents felt the smell of burning last Tuesday, November 22. We learned from the news that a forest was burning near the settlement of Zichron Yaakov, about thirty kilometers south of Haifa. The firefighters quickly put out the fire. The main cause of the fire was called dry air (humidity almost like in the desert - 7-9 percent) and strong wind. The situation is regular for this time of year. But just two days later, the fire covered Haifa. And all the Israelites began to pray for one thing - for rain, heavy, torrential rain.

“They called me, they said that I had to leave the house,” says Stella, a resident of Haifa, “I looked out from the balcony - the trees were burning about five meters away. I quickly gathered the essentials, documents, two sweaters, two T-shirts, favorite jewelry. She stuffed the cat into the bag and - out into the street!

We are sitting in her apartment after the fire. On Friday evening, all evacuees whose apartments did not burn to the ground were allowed to return.

The terrible fire, which was remembered all last week, happened 6 years ago. Burning forest on Mount Carmel. Then, during the extinguishing of the fire, 44 policemen died: they burned alive in the bus, which could not escape from the fire. This terrible tragedy forced the security services to reconsider measures to save people during fires.

Last Thursday, according to various estimates, up to 70 thousand people were evacuated from Haifa.

“My house didn’t burn down, thank God,” Stella says, “but look what’s happening on the contrary.

Romema, the district of Haifa that suffered the most, is one of the most prestigious and beautiful in the city. It is located on the slopes of the Carmel Range. Multi-storey buildings and private villas are surrounded by greenery. The trees are close to the houses. Ivy and bougainvillea picturesquely cover the walls and balconies. Avi, a security officer who guards abandoned houses, is on duty on Oren Street for the second day, his task is to track suspicious people and prevent looting:

“They say a few were detained at night,” says Avi, “they tried to steal a motorcycle and rob a store in a shopping center. But here everything is quiet here, as after a disaster movie ... From this side of the street you look - houses are at home, but come in from the opposite side - everything is burned out, windows burst, melted plastic blinds, and pipes look like dirty rags. We went from house to house, checking if anyone was left in them, if the animals had been forgotten. It burned everywhere. Houses and cars were on fire. But no one was hurt, not a single resident, none of the firemen and policemen.

During the initial inspection of the burning quarters in Haifa, municipal inspectors identified 44 potentially dangerous buildings, 30 of them are in a threatening state and could collapse.

According to the Haifa municipality, 234 families were left homeless. Damage was caused to 110 houses, 861 apartments burned down completely or partially, of which 213 were destroyed to a dangerous state, 199 apartments are in urgent need of major repairs.

The Haifa City Hall closed the entrance to the Romema area. Crowds of curious people who want to look at the consequences of the fire interfere with the work of municipal services.

In an apartment smelling of burning, Stella unpacks her hiking backpack and remembers, step by step, everything that happened over the past day. And how she became one of the few witnesses to the arson:

- For me, this is an obvious fact. I saw with my own eyes how two young guys walked around with a pot and scattered rags. I was shocked, at first I did not understand what was happening. Only when this pine tree blazed did it dawn on me what they were doing. I ran after them, they ran away from me. She called the police, they are looking for them.

Until the last moment, the cause of the fires was considered the elements, but after dozens of testimonies like Stella’s, they started talking about a new form of terrorism - the “fire intifada”.

“There are reasons to consider what is happening as manifestations of terrorism,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The Israeli prime minister is convinced that forest fires were often the result of deliberate arson. This is confirmed in the course of the investigation, which is being conducted by the police and the Security Service (SHABAK).

The head of the Israeli Interior Ministry announced the need to deprive the arsonists of Israeli citizenship. The Minister of Transport and Intelligence proposes confiscation of movable and immovable property as a punishment for involvement in arson.

From a legal point of view, it is necessary to legally equate arson, carried out on the basis of ethnic hatred, with a terrorist act. If such a law is adopted, the question will arise, who should compensate for the damage from the arson carried out by terrorists, and what should the terrorists themselves, deprived of citizenship, do? Who will receive them?

Palestinian and Israeli Arabs have repeatedly set fire to forests and bushes in the past to damage Israeli population centers. Calls for new arson in Israel, they distribute on the Web under the hashtag in Arabic "Burning Israel."

The Palestinian Authority has already condemned the actions of the arsonists. Hamas in Gaza and Qatar, on the contrary, supported the "fiery terror". On November 24, the head of the PA civil defense department stated that at least 100 fires were recorded in the territory of the autonomy.

STATISTICS
More than a dozen Israeli Air Force drones are involved in the fight against the fire, including the largest of them, the Eitan UAV and the Hermes 450 UAV. They also identify arsonists. The cameramen transmit the picture live to the fire control headquarters, tell the police what the arsonist looks like and where he is going.

Dozens of aircraft of the Elad Rivan Fire Squadron, as well as firefighter aircraft from Greece, Croatia, Ukraine, Turkey, Italy, France, Azerbaijan, Great Britain, Cyprus, and Egypt are involved in extinguishing fires.

Russia sent two Be-200 amphibious aircraft to Israel, which are capable of taking 12 tons of water from the sea surface.

On Friday evening, a B747-400 SuperTanker fire fighting aircraft arrived from the United States, chartered by Israel from a private company (the US authorities did not provide assistance to Israel). For the use of this aircraft, Israel will pay 1.5 million shekels (about 400 thousand dollars) per day. The supertanker is capable of lifting into the air and spraying up to 75,000 liters of special fire extinguishing agents over the fires.

Palestine sent eight fire brigades to help Israel. Palestinian firefighters took part in extinguishing the fire in Haifa and near Jerusalem.

A fire was discovered on Mount Adar. The fight against fire continues in the area of ​​the village of Nataf. The evacuated locals are still not allowed to return home. In the village of Halamish, 6 fire planes are taking part in extinguishing the fire. In the village, 15 houses were completely burned down.

Elena Shafran - especially for the "New",

Haifa