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03-05-2025
GAZA STRIP: Fires that have ravaged large parts of central Israel since Wednesday have largely been extinguished, the country’s Fire and Rescue Authority says.
More than 150 teams have been battling the blaze, which has scorched around 20 sq km (7.7 sq miles) of land in the Latrun area between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Israel’s ambulance service said at least 12 people had been treated for smoke inhalation but no fatalities have been reported. Seventeen firefighters were injured, according to Israeli broadcaster Kan.
Authorities said hot and dry conditions, with strong winds, made controlling the fires more challenging, and a senior official warned they could flare up again.
“I’ve been in the service for 24 years, and I’ve been through many fires,” said Shlomi Harush, a deputy commander of Ayalon fire station. “There’s no doubt that this is one of the toughest fires I’ve seen.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had declared a national emergency in response to the fires and hundreds of people evacuated their homes but an evacuation order for 12 towns near Jerusalem has now been lifted.
Countries including France, Italy and Spain had dispatched aircraft to assist in the emergency.
The fires led to the cancellation of most official events celebrating Israel’s Independence Day on Thursday, and there was a nationwide ban on lighting fires for barbecues, a traditional part of the day.
A major highway linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv has now reopened. Videos posted online earlier this week showed people abandoning their cars as flames and smoke whipped across the road.
Israeli authorities have provided conflicting accounts for the cause of the fire.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the fires were “part of the climate crisis, which must not be ignored”.
Netanyahu blamed the fires on arsonists and said that 18 people had been arrested, but Israeli police later said that only three suspects were in detention, and they were not linked to the wildfires.
Israel’s war in Gaza grinds on, but opposition is growing.
In recent weeks, thousands of Israeli reservists from all branches of the military have signed letters demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government stop the fighting and concentrate instead on reaching a deal to bring back the remaining 59 hostages being held by Hamas.
Eighteen months ago, few Israelis doubted the war’s logic; to defeat Hamas and return the hostages.
For many, the January ceasefire and subsequent return of more than 30 hostages raised hopes that the war might soon end but after Israel broke the ceasefire and returned to war in mid-March, those hopes were dashed.
“We came to the conclusion that Israel is going to a very bad place,” Danny Yatom, a former head of the spy agency Mossad told me.
“We understand that what mainly bothers Netanyahu is his own interests and in the list of priorities, his interests and the interests of having the government stable are the first ones, and not the hostages.”
Many of those signing recent letters are, like Yatom, long time critics of the prime minister. Some were involved in the anti-government protests that preceded the outbreak of war on 7 October 2023 following Hamas’s attack on Israel but Yatom says that’s not why he decided to speak out.
“I signed my name and I am participating in the demonstrations not because of any political reason, but because of a national reason,” he said. (Int’l News Desk)
