Argentina is furious: Israelis set fires to Argentina’s Patagonia

Right after the New Year, hundreds of Israeli ‘tourists’ with ties to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) descended on Chile and Argentina. The arrival is organized under the umbrella of an ‘NGO’ Mochileros Sin Fronteras (Backpackers Without Borders).

On January 9th, the fires started, engulfing huge swaths of Patagonia.

Israeli tourists caught causing huge fires in Argentina in a forest full of natural resources, ‘The New York Post’ reports.

An Israeli tourist was caught lighting fires in Los Glaciares National Park, in the Argentinian Patagonia a couple of days ago.

Investigators in Chile arrested an Israeli tourist Saturday who they believe inadvertently set off a massive wildfire that has ravaged tens of thousands of acres of pristine forest land in Patagonia.

High winds fanned the blaze at the Torres del Paine National Park, a 600,000 acre (240,100 hectare) paradise of mountains, glaciers, natural forests and lakes in deep southern Chile visited by more than 100,000 people each year.

After meeting emergency officials struggling to get a grip on the inferno, President Sebastian Pinera announced the park would remain shut throughout January.

Some 27,200 acres (11,000 hectares) of woodland and scrub, nearly four percent of the total area of the park, has already been destroyed by the blaze, which more than quadrupled in size in less than 24 hours.

The Chilean government has deployed four planes and a helicopter to the remote mountainous region, where 300 firefighters, soldiers and forest rangers were engaged in a desperate effort to get the inferno under control.

Argentine retired military general César Milani, alongside several key figures from the opposition, shared an antisemitic conspiracy theory on Sunday claiming two Israelis used an IDF grenade to cause a wildfire in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina, ‘The Jerusalem Post’ writes.

In a post on the wildfires, Milani placed the blame on "a foreign state, pointed out by the locals themselves as responsible," alongside a picture of Argentine President Javier Milei waving an Israeli flag.

The false rumors about an Israeli involvement in the wildfires that are hitting the Patagonia region started on Saturday, when radio host Marcela Feudale stated during a live coverage that there were reports of two Israelis causing the fires.

Some of the theories shared online claimed that an M26 grenade produced by Israel was found in Patagonia, in the context of the fires in the province of Chubut. Argentine fact-checking group Chequeado addressed the false claims, stating that the grenade was actually a model FMK2, produced by Fabricaciones Militares, as confirmed by the provincial government.

…Argentine sources blame the Israelis, who confirm that “there was a grenade.”

There's no smoke without fire...?

A man looks at a wildfire from his vehicle in Cerro Pirque, in the Patagonian province of Chubut, Argentina January 9, 2026
Photo: REUTERS