Residents living near the Green Line again suffered on Wednesday from severe air pollution caused by waste burning by Palestinians in the West Bank. During a discussion of the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee, Knesset Member Tzvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party said those who ignite the fires should be shot.
“We need to shoot them. This is terror. Whoever lit it should die, get a bullet in the head, not in the leg,” he said. Committee chair Knesset Member Yitzhak Kroizer of Otzma Yehudit added that waste burners should “know they could take a missile from a drone.”
Residents of Modiin, Shoham, Rosh Haayin and other communities have complained for years about the government’s failure to address the hazards caused by waste burning by Palestinians. Only in recent days has the Civil Administration begun moving to deal with illegal dumping sites. Footage presented to the committee showed heavy machinery clearing burning waste, though the internal fires require specialized treatment.
Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, who attended the meeting, said, “The fact that our ministry has no district called Judea and Samaria, and that people cannot enter with heavy machinery — that is a failure. The fact that government ministries do not have a district called Judea and Samaria — that is a failure.”
She said the burning constitutes environmental terror and must be addressed by security forces. “Shin Bet and the IDF must be brought into the picture with full force,” she said. Silman noted that work is underway to create a mechanism to offset funds from the Palestinian Authority to cover waste treatment in the West Bank.
During the hearing, Sukkot said, “There is a huge cancerous cloud over people’s homes, overhead. There’s no life. Responsibility is being passed around. In the end, people are dying. This is insane. We may need a commission of inquiry. No one will be able to pass the buck. Thousands of Israelis are dying from this terror. This is a massive industry. You tell yourself we can’t treat this as something marginal. There are many threats to the state, but here people are dying, getting sick.”
He also criticized the IDF. “The IDF is not in this event. Other than the environmental officer, no one is doing anything,” he said. “Firefighting crews are ready to go in and put out the fire. Firefighting is their responsibility. But where is the IDF? They don’t secure the firetrucks. How can you look residents in the eye? Right now the fire is burning, and people cannot send their children to school. It’s a disgrace. A shame. I’m ashamed to sit here as a coalition member. We cannot treat this as anything less than terror.”
Kroizer said the overall pattern resembles earlier failures to respond to arson attacks and incendiary balloons launched from Gaza. “It’s the same message as in Gaza. It’s just a fire. A balloon. When they saw the response was weak, October 7 came,” he said. “When there is no sovereignty and no governance in the West Bank, and when the IDF does not treat this as terror — and I didn’t say it for nothing, the arsonist should know that when he hears a buzz above his head, he will take a drone missile, just like the Defense Ministry clarified that stone throwers on the roads are terrorists and should be shot to kill — the arsonists are terrorists.”
Kroizer said he intends to summon the head of Central Command for the committee’s next discussion. “As long as Israel does not apply de facto sovereignty and kick to oblivion the Oslo framework, which leads to the murder of Israeli civilians, we will keep hearing about powers shifting...”