Israeli Air Force uses big guns to contain Jerusalem-area fire
Israeli Air Force pilots have joined firefighting teams working to contain several conflagrations that have consumed about 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) of forest and terrain, mostly near Jerusalem.
Article content
Article content
These efforts and weather conditions helped stabilize the situation, but the Israel Fire & Rescue Authority said in a statement on Thursday morning that its 155 teams were still working to contain the fires, in which no one was killed but which resulted in the hospitalization of 12 civilians and 17 firefighters. Thousands of residents have been evacuated from their homes in the Judean Foothills.
Article content
Article content
On Wednesday night, the IAF deployed its big guns in the fight against the fires: its two Samson airplanes, the Israeli name for the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules, which has only recently been added to Israel's firefighting arsenal.
Article content
Article content
Samsons converted into fire extinguishing aircraft have been conducting dozens of sorties since Wednesday night, the Israel Defense Forces said, dumping up to 15,000 litres of water or fire retardant per flight. The Foreign Ministry has reached out for assistance to nearby countries, including Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy and Bulgaria, it said in a statement.
Article content
On the ground, firefighters battled flames across the country, but on Thursday morning, they still had not 'gained control of the fires,' the Fire and Rescue Authority's statement said. Three roads that had been closed on Wednesday — Roads 1, 3 and 38 — were reopened on Thursday, police said.
Article content
Canada Park near Beit Shemesh has been hardest hit, according to a statement by KKL-JNF, a eco-Zionist organization dedicated to the sustainable development of Israel, and especially its forest management programs.
Article content
Article content
Several countries have already pledged to send help. Spain will dispatch two firefighting planes, while France, Romania, Croatia and Italy have also confirmed they will send aircraft. Ukraine has now joined the list as well, said the Foreign Ministry statement.
Article content
Article content
Alongside the Samsons and another especially-fitted firefighting aircraft, Israel's firefighting Elad squadron has 14 Air Tractor AT-802F firefighting aircraft, five Airbus H-125 helicopters and two Airbus Helicopters H-145 helicopters. In the first hours of the fire that began on Wednesday at around noon, many of these aircraft were not able to operate due to strong winds.
Article content
Shin Bet (Israel's Security Agency) is investigating the fires, which started on Israel's Memorial Day, hours before its Independence Day celebrations. Incitement calling on Palestinians to set fires circulated on social media ahead of the holiday, which coincided with dry and windy weather.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Speed and imagination needed for climate crisis
Opinion We've all seen the faces. The exhausted, care-worn, frightened faces of people who have spent days breathing in the ash-filled smoke of wildfires, while praying the winds don't change and rain will come just in the nick of time. But when the prayers don't work, and your town is just 400 metres away from a wildfire that covers 46 square kilometers, you get into your car, on a bus or an airplane and get the hell out. Journalists call them 'evacuees.' What they really are is climate refugees, people forced flee their homes to escape disasters that are far from 'natural'; disasters which scientists have been warning us about for decades, ones that are being driven, in large part, by a vast, human-driven planetary change. A change in the global climate fuelled by our addiction to oil and gas. David Lipnowski / THE CANADIAN PRESS Members of the Royal Canadian Air Force help evacuate Abbie Duskun (seated) and her daughter Veronica Clarke as they board a C-130 Hercules aircraft in Norway House June 5, at the Norway House Airport as crews continue to fight wildfires in northern Manitoba. The result is bigger more intense wildfires that race across forests and grasslands at speeds up to 22 kilometres an hour. Once they reach a critical mass and intensity, those fires then go on to create their own weather systems. Pyrocumulus clouds form which can generate thunderstorms and lightning strikes that further extend the fire, while the heat of the blaze itself creates its own wind, which in turn, can produce fire whirls — essentially tornadoes of fire. And after 20 days of fires burning or igniting in every region of Manitoba, our premier, Wab Kinew, finally named this fire season for what it is: 'a sign of a changing climate that we are going to have to adapt to.' He's right, at least in part — climate adaptation is important. But halting the progress of the climate change that's driving these disasters — whether wildfires, collapsing glaciers, drought or catastrophic flooding — is even more essential. That can only happen if every level of government in Canada puts its shoulder to the wheel and stops tinkering around with a little change here and a little change there. Because it's as clear to me, as it is to world's climate scientists, that we're long past the stage where incremental change can solve this crisis. We need to address the cause of the climate crisis head on, and what that will require is both speed and a leap of imagination. The same level of speed the Trudeau government exhibited when it announced the Canada Emergency Response Benefit in March 2020 and less than a month later delivered cheques to those in need during the pandemic lockdown. The same kind of imaginative leap our wartime prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, made when Canada, Great Britain and Europe were faced with a world war and the global threat of fascism. His government, with the help of businessman and politician C.D. Howe, transformed Canada from an agrarian-based economy to an industrialized one over the course of the war. To achieve that goal, top private sector managers worked for the government for a dollar a day supported by their company payroll. And from 1940 to the end of the war excess profits were taxed at 75 to 95 per cent and corporate taxes were increased so that 'no man should find himself richer at the end of the war than he was at the beginning.' So, what would happen if we used that same speed and level of imagination to transform Canada from a fossil fuel based economy to a clean energy one? What if Kinew, Canada's favourite premier, joined with the world's favourite banker, Prime Minister Mark Carney, to sit down and draft a battle plan to address climate change that would speed us into a better, safer future? It's not impossible when you consider the precedents for fast, radical government action. And who knows, by retooling, re-educating workers and recruiting the best and brightest to government to lead a just, clean energy revolution, we might just beat the Trump tariff crisis at the same time. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. But here's the thing — we need to tell our governments that they need to act now and quickly to address the climate crisis. And we need to tell them that not once, not twice, but again and again. We also need to own the fact that we, as a society and culture, are all culpable in this crisis. That our overconsumption, our social media fed fantasy-like expectations and disproportionate sense of privilege has helped land us in this mess. We and our governments seem to have misplaced the notion of the need for common sacrifice to achieve a greater common good. I very much hope we can find it again. Otherwise the fires, the floods and the global droughts we're now experiencing will just keep coming — and they'll keep getting worse. Erna Buffie is a writer and an environmentalist. Read more @
Winnipeg Free Press
7 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Gallery: In pictures: Norway House evacuation
Members of the Royal Canadian Air Force helped evacuees board a C-130 Hercules aircraft in Norway House, Man., on June 3, 2025, at the Norway House Airport as crews continued to fight wildfires in northern Manitoba. Photos by David Lipnowski, The Canadian Press.
CTV News
25-05-2025
- CTV News
Rain, risk of thunderstorms in the forecast for Ottawa this Sunday
Cloudy skies, rain and a risk of thunderstorms are in the forecast for Ottawa this Sunday. Environment Canada calls for a high of 17 C, increasing cloudiness and a 60 per cent chance showers with a risk of thunderstorms this afternoon. A low of 7 C and a 60 per cent chance of showers are expected for tonight. On Monday, a high of 23 C, a 40 per cent chance of showers and a risk of thunderstorms are anticipated. A low of 10 C and clear skies are expected overnight. Tuesday will see sunny skies and a high of 26 C. A low of 11 C and clear skies are expected overnight. The normal temperatures for this time of year are a high of 22 C and a low of 10 C.
