Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that 18 people had been arrested on suspicion of starting fires outside Jerusalem, with one allegedly caught in the act of arson, as the country battled possibly its worst ever wildfires.
“This is perhaps the largest fire ever in the country,” Jerusalem’s district fire department commander Shmulik Friedman told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
“There is harm to nature and also harm to people, and we are holding 18 people at the moment who are suspected of arson, one of whom was caught in the act,” he said.
The Jerusalem Post earlier reported that a 50-year-old man had been arrested for allegedly trying to start a fire near southern Jerusalem.
The man, from the Umm Tuba Palestinian Arab neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, was reportedly caught with a lighter, cotton wool and other flammable materials after police received a tip-off.
Two other people had been arrested along with him, the news outlet said, without providing details. They were suspected of either starting or exacerbating the fires.
