Yair Netanyahu’s Controversial Comments and Hamas Calls to Fuel Wildfires in Israel

On Wednesday, a firestorm of controversy erupted following a post made by Yair Netanyahu, son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which implicated Israeli citizens in the recent wildfires ravaging the country.

The claim, which he later deleted, has sparked widespread backlash and raised concerns about the impact of inflammatory rhetoric amidst an already tense situation.

In the now-deleted post, Netanyahu suggested that he hoped “there was no Israeli involvement” in the ongoing wildfires, which have caused significant damage across the landscape.

“Something is suspicious here… The Kaplanist left has been in a frenzy in recent weeks trying to cancel the Independence Day celebrations and the torchlight ceremony,” he wrote.

His comments, widely regarded as unfounded, pointed fingers at the political left in Israel, implying that they could be behind the fires as part of an effort to disrupt national celebrations.

Netanyahu then took a darker turn, stating, “I really hope that the arson attacks came only from the Arabs, without cooperation from our people.” This controversial remark seemed to blame the Arab community, though without evidence, for the devastating fires.

He later attempted to clarify his stance, stating that people should “go back to the dictionary to look up the word incitement,” attempting to deflect criticism by reframing the definition of incitement as it pertains to public speech.

The comments come at a time of heightened tensions in Israel, particularly in light of recent statements made by Hamas and Palestinian media outlets.

Earlier the same day, Hamas issued a message on Telegram encouraging Palestinians to “burn whatever you can of groves, forests, and settler homes,” framing the wildfires as a form of revenge.’

The group urged Palestinian youth in Jerusalem and the West Bank to set cars ablaze and take further action to escalate the fires. “Gaza awaits the revenge of the free,” the message read, in reference to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Social media outlets aligned with Hamas and other Palestinian groups followed suit with similar calls to intensify the fires, with one Palestinian news channel urging revolutionary youth to target settlers’ homes and the surrounding areas, while other Telegram channels explicitly praised the destruction, using inflammatory language to describe the ongoing wildfires.

These posts included messages that celebrated the fires as part of a broader strategy to cause chaos within Israeli settlements, referring to the events as “Flames of the Flood,” echoing Hamas’s earlier phrase “Flood of Al-Aqsa” used to describe the October 7 massacre.

Despite these calls for violence, Israeli authorities have yet to confirm any direct link between the wildfires and organized efforts by Palestinian factions.

Israeli firefighters, meanwhile, have been working tirelessly to contain the flames, which have broken out across several regions, including near Moshav Mesilat Zion, as seen in photographs taken on April 30, 2025.

The inflammatory comments made by Yair Netanyahu have sparked outrage, with critics accusing him of stoking division and inciting animosity during a period of heightened national crisis.

Many have called for greater responsibility from public figures, particularly those within the Netanyahu family, in addressing the volatile political climate in Israel.

As the wildfires continue to burn across the country, Israel finds itself not only battling the flames but also confronting a wider political and social crisis, exacerbated by the rhetoric of its own leadership.