Police have opened an investigation into the fire, and “are conducting parallel investigative actions and searches for suspects in the area.”
Israeli authorities suspect that a large fire that broke out late on Tuesday near a military base on Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus was started in an arson attack, according to Israeli media.
The Israel Fire and Rescue Service said in a statement, cited by The Times of Israel, that the fire started “on the southern slopes of the village of Issawiya, apparently due to the throwing of Molotov Cocktails, and progressed at great speed due to the winds” toward a hospital and the Ofarit base. It also threatened the Hebrew University Mount Scopus.
BREAKING | A large fire has broken out near Israeli intelligence base 'Ofrit' east of occupied Jerusalem.
The cause is not yet known. pic.twitter.com/c1pRClJrkq
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) June 25, 2024
The fire service suspected it may have been arson, the report said, “as the blaze apparently started in several locations at the same time.”
Police have opened an investigation into the fire, and “are conducting parallel investigative actions and searches for suspects in the area,” The Jerusalem Post said.
Tensions have been high in east Jerusalem as well as the occupied West Bank since the October 7 resistance operation.
Ongoing Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 37,718 Palestinians have been killed, and 86,337 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
