Several roads closed because of fires reopened Thursday in Israel, where firefighters still fought against fire that has been raging since the day before in Jerusalem. Fires broke out on Wednesday along the highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, forcing the police to cut several main axes and to evacuate thousands of inhabitants.
According to firefighters, 163 teams remained mobilized, supported by 12 planes. Magen David Adom’s rescue service announced that they had treated 23 people on Wednesday, most of whom suffered from burns or had inhaled from smoke. Among them were two pregnant women and two babies under a year, according to the MDA. Seventeen firefighters were injured, Kan public television said.
The firefighters fought throughout the night to control the fire. “All the roads were reopened to traffic,” the police said in a statement on Thursday morning. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had declared “the national emergency”, warning that fires could spread to the city of Jerusalem.
Soldiers were deployed on Wednesday in reinforcement and several ceremonies of the national day of independence canceled. The army announced Thursday that soldiers remained deployed in Jerusalem and other sectors of the center of Israel.
-“During the night of the dozens of vehicles were set up across the country by forming lines to prevent the fire from expanding,” the army said in a statement.
Aviation “continues to participate in efforts in order to turn off the fires,” added the army, stating that it has sent around fifty fire trucks to the affected areas. An AFP journalist in the center of Israel saw wooded areas swept by fire on Wednesday near the main road connecting Latrun to Bet Shemesh, while helicopters were trying to turn off the flames.
