After battling all night to get wildfires under control, Israeli firefighters were back in action against numerous smaller fires sparked by Hezbollah rocket fire on Tuesday. Crews worked in hot, dry temperatures reaching up to 34°.
“When you combine this with shells and bombs that explode, it starts all these wildfires. You don’t need much for that. Most of the damage was to green areas, and a few buildings, mostly warehouses,” Eddi Aharonoff, a spokesperson for the Fire Brigade said as he explained “fighting fire under fire” to The Press Service of Israel.
“We keep saying all the time that we are the only firefighters in the world that are fighting fire under fire,” Aharonoff told TPS-IL. “We saw that on October 7, of course, when we lost 11 of our colleagues in the south. And now we are facing it in the north. There are entire areas where we cannot be in direct touch with the fire because they happen on the border and we might be hit by Hezbollah fire.”
He said that firefighting crews near the Lebanese and Gaza border carry rifles and pistols, along with protection equipment provided by the army and police.