Palestinian waste fires choke Israeli towns while MK Succot demands immediate national action and accountability.
MK Tzvi Succot arrived in Shoham on Tuesday night after residents pleaded for help, reporting suffocating smoke drifting into their homes almost every evening. The source, according to municipal investigations, is unmistakable: illegal waste fires ignited in the Palestinian Authority village of Ni’lin, sending toxic plumes directly into Israeli airspace.
During a meeting with Shoham council head Daphna Rabinovich and CEO Dina Fromovitz, Succot received a comprehensive briefing detailing how the persistent smoke has disrupted the daily lives of countless families. Rabinovich described homes filled with fumes, children unable to play outside, and residents forced to seal windows night after night. Fromovitz added that the council has been documenting repeated incidents where heavy smoke blankets wide sections of the community.
But Succot refused to settle for paperwork.
Immediately after the meeting, he deployed to the hazardous zone itself. Accompanied by the regional governor and a significant IDF escort, Succot rode in an armored vehicle to the border-area waste site where the fires originate. On the ground, he witnessed sprawling mounds of trash and multiple active burn pits emitting thick, toxic smoke — the very smoke invading Shoham, Modi’in, Rosh HaAyin, and other Israeli communities.
The MK was stunned.
“What I saw tonight cannot continue,” Succot declared at the scene. He announced that next Thursday he will convene an urgent Knesset committee meeting focused solely on this environmental and public health crisis. He vowed to demand immediate intervention from all responsible authorities, insisting that Israeli families must not live under a permanent cloud of Palestinian-origin pollution.
“Residents across the region deserve clean air,” Succot said. “This situation is unacceptable, and I am closely tracking every step taken on the ground.”
Rabinovich expressed gratitude for his hands-on involvement. She stressed that seeing the burning sites firsthand is crucial for advancing a real solution, and said the council expects Succot’s Knesset discussion to finally bring decisive action against a problem that has harmed the area for far too long.
