By Dr Marwan Asmar
North Israel is burning with more than 15 fires going on at the same time. The horizons of these northern areas are covered with flames and smoke. Gaza’s war had long filtered into these northern areas.
[https://twitter.com/GlobalAffairs96/status/1797728386581942688]
Set alight by Hezbollah rockets launched from southern Lebanon, some of which through drones, thousands of acres have been set alight.
The blazes have started to burn Sunday and continued all through Monday night, going into Tuesday morning with teams of Israeli firefighters battling the raging flames that are described as apocalyptic and never seen before.
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Videoclips of the fires are trending on the X platform showing the extent of the raging flames. All video clips show the rage in the fires that see no end as long as rockets keep coming to the northern Galilee and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Some of the worst hit areas is the settlement of Kiryat Shmona where thousands of Israelis are fleeing their homes. It is reported six firemen were injured trying to control the fires here. The settlement, situated in northeastern occupied Palestine, had a population of 24,000 settlers.
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Most of them had long been evacuated in the early months of the war on Gaza after 7 October, 2023 because of constant targeting by Hezbollah rockets.
Only 4000 remained but now and with the raging fires, these Israeli settlers are being evacuated quickly.
One blogger pointed out that 12 to 13 kilometers of the Galilee and Kiryat Shmona belt are burning despite the nine fire-fighting teams who are fighting round-the-clock to put the fires out. The fighting crews were later invreased to over 30 according to the Times of Israel.
The paper said the fires led to several major road in the Galilee area.
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Israel’s Iron Dome is unable to deflect the incoming rockets from southern Lebanon as they are being launched in bundles and firemen are unable to put the fires out because of the wind changes.
Israeli extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says its is time for “all of Lebanon to burn” in response to the fires triggered by Hezbollah. He had long long been calling for the invasion of Lebanon and the destruction of Hezbollah in its entirety.
Dr Marwan Asmar writes from Amman, Joran, covering Middle Eastern affairs and he blogs at https://crossfirearabia.com.
4 June 2024
Source: countercurrents.org