Banner calling for arson circulated online hours before the fires erupted, just ahead of Israel’s Independence Day.

By JNS

Israeli police reportedly arrested or detained three suspects in connection with fires that broke out on Wednesday near Jerusalem, amid soaring temperatures and fierce winds, and led to the cancellation of many Independence Day events on Thursday.

The suspects, who were not identified or described in initial reports in the Israeli media, were arrested within several hours of the fires, which forced evacuations, road closures and the cancellation of Israel’s state Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony.

Fires were also reported near Israel’s Coastal Plain, near the Hadera area.

Halel Bitton, a reporter covering the fires for Channel 14, said that dozens of separate fires have been reported in the affected area.

Ahead of the arrests, calls to set fires in Israel proliferated on social media in Arabic, several individuals who monitor this discourse noted.

One banner, shared online by Ayelet Lash, an open source intelligence activist from Rehalim in Samaria, read: “Set fire to the earth beneath the settlers’ feet.” It featured a drawing of a man wearing a keffiyeh starting a fire near a field on a hill overlooking burning homes.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated on Wednesday that no fatalities have been reported from the fires.

Arsonists, he added, “should be treated as arch-terrorists for all intents and purposes, who tried to murder thousands of civilians, and accordingly, they should be brought to justice in the full severity of the law.” He reiterated his call for instituting the death penalty against terrorists.

“Police will continue their efforts to capture all those involved in the arson terror, and the incitement team will continue to locate the instigators and rioters,” he said.

Zvi Sukkot, a Knesset lawmaker, sent an urgent letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding a curfew on Arab villages and cities.

“As the fires spread, calls are being published on Arab networks to ‘set fire to the occupied forests and settlements,’ and there is a real concern, based on past experience, that Palestinians will attempt to set additional fires in Judea and Samaria and throughout the country,” Sukkot wrote.