Jerusalem Mount Scopus Tower. Photo: wiki commons.

Fourteen soldiers were injured when Palestinian youths lobbed fireworks into the Israel Defense Forces Ofrit army base on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem on Sunday, sparking a large fire, Israel Hayom reported.

The assailants threw the fireworks over the gate at the entrance to the base, after which fire broke out in a field and spread almost into the base itself. The base serves the Jerusalem sector of the Homefront Command. Soldiers who tried to put out the fire suffered smoke inhalation injuries and were treated at a nearby hospital.

Asaf Abras, a spokesman for the Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Service, said the fire spread quickly to the valley of the Arab village of Issawiya, and that it was “definitely a deliberate case of arson.”