Israel fire divine strike: Palestine PM

GAZA CITY - The de-facto Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniya said Sunday that the massive forest fire in northern Israel was a “strike from Allah”.

Commenting on the fire in Israel, which killed 41 Israelis and burnt more than 50 square km of forest, Hamas’ Haniya told reporters as he joined emergency prayers in Gaza City to ask for rain that “those fires are divine strikes for what they (Israel) did”.

He expressed hope rain would fall in the Palestinian territories struck by an unprecedented dry season.

Meanwhile a prominent Israeli spiritual leader and the guru of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said in his weekly sermon late Saturday that according to the Talmud, fires erupt only in places where the Sabbath is desecrated.

He called the fire on Haifa’s Carmel Hill terrible, but argued it proved the need to return to Judaism and observe the Sabbath.

Shas is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s third-largest coalition partner and while Yosef is not a cabinet member, Shas ministers usually consult with the rabbi before taking any major decisions.