A 24-year old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of inciting people to deliberately start fires, police said, bringing the number of suspects in custody to 12, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to treat those who are behind part of the wave of fires as “terrorists.”
The suspect, a Bedouin from southern Israel who allegedly posted messages on Facebook urging arson, was the first to be detained for incitement. Israeli Arab MKs called for his release, saying the post was sarcastic and had been misunderstood. Seen by The Times of Israel, the post concludes with a hashtag “Sarcasm, not serious.”
Police also arrested a second person Friday morning on suspicion of starting a blaze that destroyed at least 10 homes in the village of Beit Meir in the Jerusalem hills overnight. He was taken in for questioning, police said.
“We believe there are arsonists out there, but also weather conditions that allow this to spark [without human aid],” Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevy told Army Radio after the first arrest.
So far 12 people have been arrested for sparking or inciting at least some of the hundreds of fires that have threatened Israeli towns and forests this week.
Among them are six residents of the north, who the Shin Bet security agency and police believe are responsible for starting some of the devastating fires that ripped through Haifa on Thursday, causing the evacuation of 75,000 people and the destruction of hundreds of homes.
On Friday morning officials said that 600 homes had been damaged in Haifa, some 37 of them destroyed, and that some fires were still burning, but there were no longer any major conflagrations in the city.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon visited the stricken city and authorized officials to hand out cash advances to those who were left homeless and without money.
“About places to sleep, I told the mayor and other officials across the country, don’t look at the money and the bureaucracy, just work. Now we have to find solutions for the residents,” the Walla news site quoted him as saying.
The incitement suspect, a resident of the predominantly Bedouin town of Rahat in southern Israel, had posted messages on Facebook calling for further fire attacks, police said. He was to appear Friday in a Beersheba court.
The Ynet news site said he was the son of a prominent leader of the Islamic Movement and said his Facebook post had said “there are still forests where the fire has not reached, we need our crazy youths to do what is needed.” The report did not name him.
More than 50% of these cases have been proven to be arson (all the Haifa fires were arson, as well as the Neve Tzuf fire).
Please PLEASE wake up and use the proper word, instead of feeding PA propaganda!!!
Looks more like thinly veiled threats & actual incitement to extremely dangerous action.
While the weather conditions make it easy for this to happen it’s seems like the drought is getting assistance from Arab terrorists, with incitement & action.
There is a certain ethnic people living in Eretz Yisroel, who have in mind one thing: our destruction!
However, how do you punish anyone, who has not yet taken negative action – because they only have the thought?
Simple, and this is morally correct: Just offer enough money to compensate them for any loss, and order them to pick-up and leave.