Wildfires rage near Jerusalem, Israel declares the state of emergency • FRANCE 24 English

Wildfires rage near Jerusalem, Israel declares the state of emergency • FRANCE 24 English

Well, we’re going to cross then to Jerusalem, talk to our correspondent, Noat Tanapolski, who joins us from there. No, how bad then? First of all, are these fires? They’re extremely bad. They’re some of the worst fires, if not the worst fire in the nation’s history. We still don’t have a full sense of it um because it’s still raging and uh it could still expand. Um, I don’t know how much you can see that the skies above Jerusalem that are normally blue and very, very clear, especially now in springtime are just filled with dust. And the smell in the air is as if I were sitting next to a fireplace. It’s been this way since yesterday with very, very powerful winds and at the end of a winter that was a drought. Um, and so the circumstances are particularly harsh. The other thing is today is Independence Day in Israel. normally celebrated with barbecues, with people having little, you know, marshmallows on the fire. The entire country has been shut down. Trains between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem aren’t working. There’s no public transportation. The roads are very iffy. Most have been closed. Um, there have been tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people evacuated, and the fires are not yet under control. How are the authorities trying to respond to this then, Noga? Well, they’re doing a pretty hless job of it. Um, I want to tell you there’s a lot of criticism, heavy criticism against the government for having been unprepared, especially after the Israeli fire chief said that this was an entirely predictable result of climate change that was known about. Um the other thing is that Israel suffered 10 years ago from a different fire, forest fire, but a terrible fire up north in Hyifa. And the results of that, the investigation of that fire, um the results of that investigation were never put into place. Prime Minister Tanya was prime minister back then appears to have entirely ignored the recommendations. And now Israel’s in a position of basically having been making phone calls all night to countries as far away as Argentina, begging for help. Israel does not have sufficient um airplanes that can dump water on these massive fires. In addition, the very heavy winds made air power almost impossible. So, it’s a tricky situation and the the government is trying to basically turn what’s a wreck Independence Day into some sort of facade of accountability. No, thanks very much. No, Tanapulosia, our correspondent joining us there live from Jerusalem. Thank you.

Massive wildfires near Jerusalem forced evacuations and road closures on Wednesday, prompting Israel to deploy troops as firefighters battled the flames. Prime Minister Netanyahu declared a national emergency, warning the fires could reach the city. On Jerusalem’s Independence Day, Noga Tarnopolsky reports, celebrations are absent as the country remains shut down and the air nearly unbreathable.
#Wildfires #Jerusalem #Israel

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