By Haaretz Service and Eli Ashkenazi Tags: Israel news

www.haaretz.com/news/national/police-suspect-arson-behind-six-bushfires-in-north-1.295635

Six bushfires blazed throughout the Northern Galilee and the Golan Heights on Friday, as fire fighters struggled to quell the flames.
Fire in northern Israel Firday.

Fire in northern Israel on Friday, 11 June 2010.
Photo by: Yaron Kaminski

Following an initial investigation, police suspected that arson was behind most of the bushfires. Security forces scanned the vast areas in search of suspected arsonists.

Toward the evening fire fighters managed to control the blazes at all six fires, with the help of four fire extinguishing airplanes.

Two weeks ago a huge brushfire ravaged the Gamla nature reserve in the Golan Heights yesterday, burning thousands of dunams of shrubbery and endangering the lives of several eagle chicks.

“The entire reserve has been burned,” the reserve’s ecologist Yael Horesh said yesterday.

Israel Nature and Parks Authority director general, Eli Amitai, said the Gamla reserve could take years to recover from the damage.