The fires that have burned across Israel since Tuesday raged on Thursday with new areas threatened by flames as other blazes have come under control. Fifty percent of these fires were caused by repeated arson, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio Thursday morning.Palestinians, and Arabs altogether, are celebrating the fires with the hashtag "Israel burns" in Arabic. At the moment, there are new posts with that hashtag every few seconds on Twitter.
Also on Army Radio, Shimon Ben Ner, a senior Haifa firefighter, said "I know for a fact that they tried to set fire to the department's station in Haifa deliberately to cause the Haifa fire department to be paralyzed."
This post is typical:
And this:
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Among the celebrations are people are saying that this is divine retribution for the pending Israeli law to limit loudspeakers for the Muslim call to prayer.
Interestingly, Hamas' leader said explicitly that the law means that Israel is "playing with fire."
Finally, there are gleeful references to the Holocaust: