Israeli police have arrested four teenagers on suspicion they started a massive forest fire through negligence, a police spokesman said on Monday.
“We have made four arrests – two teenagers from the Druze village of Isfiya who were arrested on Saturday, and another two who were questioned on Sunday and released to house arrest,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, without saying where the second two were from.
He said the two teenagers from Isfiya were scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
The fire in the Carmel hill range near the northern city of Haifa began on Thursday, killing 42 people before it was brought under control three days later after a massive international firefighting effort.
An initial investigation appears to show the blaze, the biggest in Israel’s 62-year history, was started by accident by several teenagers who were having a picnic in the area, Rosenfeld said.
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