{"id":2158,"date":"2025-05-05T15:26:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2025-05-05T15:26:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:26:51","slug":"israel-hit-with-largest-ever-wildfires-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/2025\/05\/05\/israel-hit-with-largest-ever-wildfires-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel hit with \u2018largest ever\u2019 wildfires (VIDEOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a national emergency over the situation<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\"Israel<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The flames and smoke rising in the wildfire that broke out in a forested area between the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. \u00a9 Getty Images \/ Mostafa Alkharouf<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli firefighters continue to battle wildfires that have been raging near Jerusalem for two days. Emergency services have described them as some of the \u201clargest ever\u201d<\/em> in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fires broke out on Wednesday along the main highway connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, spreading quickly due to the heat and strong winds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key highway and several other roads in the area were shut down, with people in at least ten communities forced to evacuate from what witnesses described as \u201cwalls of flame.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 160 firefighting teams and 12 aircraft were deployed to contain the wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that \u201cwe are now in a national emergency, not just a local one,\u201d<\/em> adding that \u201cdefending Jerusalem\u201d<\/em> was a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firefighters worked through the night, unblocking the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway and allowing residents in several settlements to return to their homes on Thursday. However, the fire service acknowledged in a statement that \u201cat this stage we still have not gained control\u201d<\/em> of the conflagration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the local media, at least 12 civilians and 17 firefighters, including two pregnant women, have been hospitalized due to smoke inhalation and burns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u26a1\ufe0f\ud83d\udd25 Israeli media says: Today’s fires are the largest in “Israel’s history.”The occupation forces evacuated five settlements and closed the highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. (Qudsn) pic.twitter.com\/uCWyVtoRGc<\/a>\u2014 MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) April 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

About 5,000 acres had burned out as of Thursday, including about 3,200 acres of forest. Canada Park, outside the city of Modi\u2019in, has been the most affected, according to the forestry organization Jewish National Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s weird how @BBCNews<\/a> is normally obsessed with Israel but has nothing on its news site about the fires devastating the Jerusalem area. It is believed that at least some of the fires are the work of arsonists. pic.twitter.com\/0TkuKvJv13<\/a>\u2014 Nicole Lampert (@nicolelampert) April 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Netanyahu also announced that 18 people had been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with the fires. However, police sources told the local media that only three detentions had actually been made and that the suspects had been trying to start fires not near Jerusalem but elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\ud83d\udfe5 \ud835\udc08\ud835\udc03\ud835\udc05 \ud835\udc1f\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2c \ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc29\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc20 \ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc28 \ud835\udc1c\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc26\ud835\udc1b\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2d \ud835\udc28\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc20\ud835\udc28\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc27\ud835\udc20 \ud835\udc1f\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2c \ud835\udc22\ud835\udc27 \ud835\udc2d\ud835\udc21\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc09\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc2e\ud835\udc2c\ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc26 \ud835\udc07\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc2c \ud835\udc1a\ud835\udc2b\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc1a\u2666\ufe0f Firefighting teams from the Air Force, including fire trucks, were dispatched to the fire zones.\u2666\ufe0f Yasur (CH-53) helicopter of\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/HBW5ToJr2A<\/a>\u2014 Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The wildfires have prompted the Israeli authorities to reduce the scale of Independence Day celebrations, marked on April 30 and May 1. The traditional torch-lighting ceremony in Jerusalem was canceled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The massive fire in Jerusalem is spreading rapidly and is expected to worsen, continuing for over 24 hours, while some Palestinians are calling to start more fires wherever possible.Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, and Greece are sending aid.Pray for Israel. pic.twitter.com\/Snm0C9MYpB<\/a>\u2014 Vivid.\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf1 (@VividProwess) April 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of the Israel Fire and Air Rescue Association, Dov Ganem, has blamed the wildfires on the government, saying that it had been unprepared to tackle disasters of such scale. Ganem told the news outlet Walla that he had long been pushing for the country to develop an advanced aerial firefighting capability, but that his calls had been ignored by officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Please pray for Jerusalem \u2014 the fires are terrifying \ud83d\udc94 pic.twitter.com\/9zqfSBe59U<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a national emergency over the situation The flames and smoke rising in the wildfire that broke out in a forested area between the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. \u00a9 Getty Images \/ Mostafa…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2159,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}