Israel is on fire and according to the prime minister it’s a new form of terrorism, arson. Tourists visiting Israel should be aware of the ongoing crisis in that country. The Israeli Prime Minister is treating the situation as a terror attack and accepted help from friendly countries including , Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Turkey and Russia offered help, with several aircraft already joining efforts to quell the blaze, dropping fire-retardant material to try to douse the heaviest fires and stem their spread. Palestine also offered assistance.
Ten thousands of residents are fleeing cities like Haifa, while arsonists continue to make the situation worse.
Television pictures showed a wall of flames raging through central neighborhoods of Israel’s third largest city. Firefighters dowsed a petrol station with water as the blaze edged closer.
The fires have been burning in multiple locations for the past three days but intensified on Thursday, fueled by unseasonably dry weather and strong easterly winds.
Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan referred to “arson terrorism” and said there had been a small number of arrests, providing no other details.
On social media, some Arabs and Palestinians celebrated the fires and the hashtag #Israelisburning was trending on Twitter.
Netanyahu said he had asked for a “Super Tanker” fire fighting aircraft to be sent from the United States.
A lack of rain combined with very dry air and strong easterly winds have spread the fires this week across the center and north of the country, as well as parts of the West Bank. Hundreds of homes have been damaged or destroyed but no deaths or serious injuries have been reported.
Highway 443, which links Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as it cuts through a southern flank of the West Bank, was temporarily closed to morning rush-hour traffic as flames reached the city of Modi’in, about half way between the two conurbations.
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