The fires that broke out in the Upper Galil as a result of Hezbollah rocket barrages at the beginning of the week consumed thousands of acres of forest land.
A total of 96 fire sites developed on Sunday and Monday. The vast majority of them were brought under control by the Fire and Rescue Services but additional Hezbollah barrages along with the heatwave weather conditions caused three more fires to flare up on Tuesday – in the Birya forest near Tzfas, in Margaliot and in Keren Naftali.
The chairman of Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael [JNF-KKL] Yifat Ovadia-Luski said during a situational assessment on Tuesday that since the beginning of the war, many forests in the north have suffered almost twice the damage incurred during the Lebanon War in 2006. At least 3,459 acres of land were damaged since the beginning of the war, compared to 1,729 acres during the 2nd Lebanon War. Ovadia-Luski believes that a full assessment will show that the damage is even more extensive.
Eddi Aharonoff, a spokesperson for Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services told The Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL): “It’s an environmental disaster. We already lost around 4,000 acres of green land in the north. It will take dozens of years to repair this damage. This comes with the tragedy of thousands of people who were forced to evacuate.”
Aharonoff added: “We keep saying that we’re the only firefighters in the world that are fighting fire under fire.”
“We saw that on October 7th, of course, when we lost 11 of our colleagues in the south. And now we are facing it in the north. There are entire areas where we can’t be in direct contact with the fire because they happen on the border and we might be hit by Hezbollah fire.”
He added that firefighting crews near the Lebanese and Gaza border carry rifles and pistols.
“When you’re going to extinguish a fire, the temperature can get to 200 or 300 degrees,” he said. “This can detonate the bullets. You’re actually carrying an explosive in your pocket while fighting the fire. That can be extremely dangerous for our firefighters.”
The video below shows the fire in the Birya forest near Tzfas:
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
Whatever has happened to the
“Never again”.
Whatever happened to the kochi v’etzem yadi-
“show them!”
Whatever happened to the
“super” “best” “most advanced” “strongest” military around…?
The obvious answer is nothing can happen to something that doesn’t exist.
carry on believing in the bad sad murderous joke of a state, and you’ll only suffer, as the questions just won’t go away, they will get bigger and bigger….
That said, may Hashem protect all Jews, Amen.