One-third of the forest fires that devastated over 35,000 acres of land in Israel last summer were deliberately set and apparently were terrorist acts, according to an ministerial committee report just released.
The committee was formed to investigate the unprecedented incidence of forest and grass fires in Israel in 1988. A total of 141,695 dunams were burned, nearly four times the figure for 1987, when 37,827 dunams went up in flames. A dunam approximately equals a quarter acre.
The data gathered by the committee point to organized acts of arson.
The report noted that the Arabic news media and leaflets exhorted the Arab population to use arson as a weapon in support of the Palestinian uprising in the administered territories.
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