Arab terrorists in Judea torched an area in the Gush Etzion town of Rosh Tzurim, located several miles off Highway 60.
Arson terror attacks by Palestinian Authority Arabs in both Judea and Samaria have been ongoing and increasing over the past several months.
This past May, the much-celebrated cherry orchard in the Jewish community of Kfar Etzion was seriously damaged in a series of agricultural hate crimes — most of them arson attacks — that destroyed hundreds of the beautiful trees just days ahead of the annual Gush Etzion regional cherry festival.
Local residents accused Arabs from the nearby village of Beit Ummar, a hotbed of terrorist activity, of flinging burning tires into the orchards, causing losses of tens of thousands of dollars at least two nights in a row.
It’s not simple to deal with burning tires, which often are packed with explosives that cause secondary explosions aimed at wounding or killing the firefighters who come to extinguish the flames. Because they’re so dangerous, the bomb squad is usually summoned along with the fire and rescue team, and the IDF.
In the same month, Arab terrorists set fire — or tried to set fire — to fields near the communities of Migdal Oz and Gva’ot.
Agricultural terrorism isn’t new in Israel, and neither is arson terror. Just two years ago the port city of Haifa and numerous other communities found themselves fighting walls of flames that broke out across the north.
