Palestinian firefighters battle Israel blazes

Palestinian firefighters battle Israel blazes

05 Dezember 2010

published by www.abc.net.au


Israel — In a rare phone call on Saturday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas for his support.

Meanwhile, the Israeli authorities say that it may take up to a week to put out the fire and a number of countries have been helping tackle the blaze.

“There are three Russian aircrafts that are working in the area,” said Israeli police spokesman, Mickey Rosenfeld.

“There is also a further six airplanes on the way to here, to Israel, from the international support and community, including France and the United States, Spain, Cyprus Italy and Hungary.

“All of this is in order to prevent the fires from spreading and to take control of the situation as quickly as possible.”

At least 10 foreign firefighting planes have been flown to Israel to help control the massive bushfires that killed about 40 prison guards.

The guards were on their way to evacuate the Damon Prison in the Carmel mountains in northern Israel when their bus became trapped in the inferno after a burning tree fell across the road.

Some died inside the vehicle while 14 bodies were found on the ground outside.

Some of the men were apparently young cadets and trainees on one of their first big jobs.

The fire is still raging across Mt Carmel, which sits above the northern coastal town of Haifa.


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