Several ancient oak trees, as well as pine trees that were decades old, were cut down by vandals over the weekend at the Carmel National Park.
Nathan Elbaz, of the Israel Nature and National Parks Service, said that a total of eight trees were cut down.
According to Elbaz, National Parks Service rangers discovered the vandalism during their routine morning patrol in the park.
The trees – all part of the park's different camping areas, were left where they were cut.
The pine trees (Photo: Nathan Elbaz)
Illegal deforestation is common phenomenon in northern Israel
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However, since in this case the trees were left behind, the National Parks Service believes that this was an act of retaliation of sorts against the service itself.
"The trees were not cut down and removed, but there were left, literally in the middle of the camping sites. This wasn't about chopping down trees for firewood, this was about damaging the property.
"This is also an ecological blow to the park, since oak trees take hundreds of years to grow to this size," he said.
Both the National Parks Service and the police have launched investigations.