Aerial firefighting during the Mount Carmel fires in 2010. Photo: wiki commons.

Following two massive fires that spread through Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israel’s Public Security Minister says he suspected “spontaneous terrorism” was involved, a term he uses to describe people who are not acting on behalf of any particular groups but simply for nationalistic reasons on their own.

“We assume, because of the proximity of the fires and the timings of them, it was probably arson,” Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich said, noting that the official cause had yet to be determined.

“These things are being investigated – I assume this is the reason but it is still under review,” he said.

Over 30 teams of firefighters and aerial equipment were used on Tuesday to combat the blazes.  The events in Jerusalem on Tuesday followed a massive spike in fires around the Jerusalem area over the past 2 weeks, which has led local fire departments to battle nearly 200 separate incidents.

“Arson is strongly suspected, but we have excellent researchers and ultimately, if indeed there was arson, police have the ability to catch the arsonists,” said Shahar Ayalon, a fire commissioner in Israel.