Israel Broadcasting Corporation: Fires in northern Israel double what they were during the 2006 war

Tens of thousands of dunums of natural bush in northern Israel have been burned by rockets fired by Lebanon’s Hezbollah over the past two days and into Wednesday morning, the Israel Broadcasting Corporation said.

The Israel Broadcasting Authority reported that the fire, which broke out on a large scale, consumed a large number of sites in the Upper Galilee, and thousands of dunams (a dunam equals one thousand square meters), noting that the true extent of the damage is still unknown.

The Israel Broadcasting Authority confirmed that 16 people were injured during the operation to extinguish the fires, which broke out in 96 new fire hotspots in the northern region.

Yifat Lusky, head of the Israel Land Administration, assessed the situation on Wednesday, saying that “many bushes in the north have been hit harder than the 2006 Lebanon war”.

Yifat explained that about 1,200 dunums were burned in the bushes of the Ras al Naqoura mountain range, and about 200 dunums were burned in the Keren Naftali forest with partial damage there, where 90% of the Mount Naftali forest was burned, or about 8,000 dunums, burned to various degrees.

The Israeli official stressed that the situation is difficult in the north, and that it requires coordination between the fire services, security forces and local authorities.

According to the broadcaster, there was significant damage of about 14,000 dunums, compared to only 7,000 dunams burned during the first war with Lebanon in 2006.

Hezbollah has intensified its operations against Israeli targets over the past two days, and its rockets have set fires in areas including Kiryat Shmona, Safad, Tiberias, Amiad, Kfar Giladi, Kirin Naftali, Petis, and Margaliot, wounding 16 people, including 7 reservists.

Videos showed the flames devouring swathes of the border areas with Lebanon, which since October have seen an almost daily exchange of shelling between Israel and Hezbollah against the backdrop of the Israeli war on Gaza.