JERUSALEM -- Israeli police said Friday that at least 12 people were in custody on suspicion of starting a series of large fires that have forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes and left widespread damage across the country.

Some of the fires, which started Monday night, were still burning Friday, and numerous countries, including Russia, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt, had sent emergency crews and firefighting planes to help Israel tackle the blazes. The Palestinian Authority also sent four firefighting teams.

Israeli media reported that the largest firefighting plane, the Supertanker, was on its way from the United States and was expected to land in Israel on Friday evening. The fires have spread quickly because of gusty winds and a lack of rain.

Officials and politicians said that at least half of the fires, which raged from the Jerusalem area to the north of country, had been started intentionally for nationalist reasons. They were quick to label it a new form of terrorism.

Police have not disclosed the identities of the suspects arrested so far.

In a news conference Thursday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Any arson or incitement to arson is terrorism. Whoever tries to burn parts of the state of Israel will be punished."

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of the ultranationalist Jewish Home party, said in a message on Twitter, "Only those to whom the land does not belong to are capable of burning it."

Israeli-Arab politicians said that the government was taking advantage of the situation to incite against Arabs and the Palestinians.

Overnight Thursday, a blaze engulfed the small community of Beit Meir in the Jerusalem hills, and multiple families had to be evacuated. Although there were no casualties, heavy damage was reported to some of the properties. Two people were arrested suspected of starting that fire.

On Thursday, more than 60,000 people from Haifa, which sits on Israel's northern coast and is the nation's third-largest city, were evacuated from their homes as fires blew into the center of the city. By Friday morning, however, the fires seemed under control and people slowly began to return to their homes. Israel's electric company said power lines were down in more than 700 residences and damage was widespread.

The first fire broke out Monday night near Neve Shalom, a mixed Jewish-Arab community halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. As that fire was brought under control, another erupted in Zichron Yaakov, a town just south of Haifa. There, dozens of residents were forced to flee their homes and several houses were destroyed.

On Wednesday, the community of Nataf, in the Jerusalem Hills, also came under fire. Property was damaged there, too. Israel police said they had detained four Palestinians believed to have started the fire, though it was not clear if it was on purpose or by accident.

Throughout the night Wednesday, firefighters battled blazes in other areas, too. In one place, near the city of Modi'in, police were forced to close down the main highway to Jerusalem. Also there, residents were evacuated.

More than 100 people have been injured, mostly from smoke inhalation, but no fatalities have been reported.</s>A series of fires has spread across Israel. It is unclear whether these are human or weather caused, although in the case of at least one fire, four arrests have been made.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich said on Nov. 22 that it will take at least two more days to bring thefires under control as fire crews continue to battle high winds and unseasonably dry conditions around the country.

As of this writing, at least five fires are burning out of control around the country, in Zichron Yaakov, Dolev, Kiryat Gat, Gush Etzion and the Western Galilee.

More than 200 homes in Zichron Yaakov, south of Haifa, and Dolev, in the Binyamin region have been evacuated due to the fires.

Thirteen people have been treated for smoke inhalation, mostly at Hillel Yafe Medical Center in Hadera. Twenty homes have been damaged, including 12 that have been completely destroyed.

Health officials said that Zichron Yaakov residents should remain indoors with windows closed in order to avoid inhaling smoke.

One evacuee, Zichron Yaakov farmer Shai Zukerman, told Army Radio that he hasn’t seen a fire like this in many years, and added that the high winds are changing direction frequently, complicating efforts to contain the blaze.

“There are fire planes in the area, on the ground I can see fire trucks moving [towards the edges of town, towards the fire]. The fire is close to the homes, we are very worried about them.

“It’s got to be 10 or even 12 years since we’ve seen a fire like this, maybe even more,” Zukerman said.

In addition, residents of a third town, Gevaot, in Gush Etzion, told TPS that they could see flames from two fires burning near the community, but no evacuation orders had been issued.

Fires have also been reported near Kfar Vradim, and in the western Galilee, about 10 kilometers east of Nahariya, near the Lebanese border.

The fires followed another blaze overnight between Nov. 21 and Nov. 21 in a forest to the north of Bet Shemesh, near the Latrun Monastery. Residents of Neve Shalom-Wahat al-Salam, a mixed Jewish-Arab settlement, were evacuated but fire crews extinguished the fire by early Tuesday. Residents returned to their homes around midday.

On Wednesday, Nov. 23, about 60 families from Talmon, about 20 kilometers east of Ben Gurion Airport in the Binyamin region of the West Bank, were evacuated as fire crews continue to battle a fire from reaching the community.

The fire, which began early Wednesday outside the nearby community of Dolev, did not initially appear to threaten Talmon. But the fire changed direction when winds shifted towards evening.

Fire officials said that they were working on the basic assumption that the fires were deliberately set.

Amnon Amir, commander of the Judea and Samaria region of the Israel Fire Department, said the fire near Dolev began in a valley south of the community, in an area that hikers don’t normally get to.

Meanwhile, police spokesmen said they believe the fire broke out as the result of dry, windy weather conditions.

Dr. Barry Lynn, a lecturer in meteorology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the founder of Weather-it-Is-Israel, told TPS that unless ignited by lightning, brush fires are all caused by human failure, intentional or otherwise. He noted that rainfall for this year so far is below normal, meaning conditions around the country were ripe for fire.

“Sometimes, our normal winter [weather] patterns are delayed in arriving, and this is one of those years. In fact, there are those who say that the onset of winter has moved later in the fall season with the warming observed over the last decade. Wildfire spread and intensity depends on dryness and wind speed. Since the arrival of winter tends to bring strong winds, this combines with the late dryness to make wildfires more dangerous,” he added.

Weather forecasts for the rest of this week continue to predict high winds, possibly calming on Friday but likely remaining strong enough to constitute a fire hazard into early next week.

However, medium-range models indicate rain for the last few days of November.

The fire near Talmon bore many similarities to a fire near Neve Ilan, about 15 kilometers west of Jerusalem. There, crews have been battling a blaze all day outside the nearby town of Nataf, but shifting evening winds sent the flames raging towards Neve Ilan, in the direction of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.

On Tuesady, Nov. 22, Jerusalem Police arrested four employees of a contractor working on a road near the Nataf community. The men are suspected of igniting a bonfire that got out of control and ignited the blaze that currently threatens the community. It is not clear whether the original fire was an intentional act of arson or a careless mistake.

The arrests followed the declaration Tuesday of a fire ban covering nearly the whole country, signed late Tuesday by acting Fire Commissioner Shimon Ben Ner. Violating the ban, which includes bonfires and fires set in open fields, carries a six month jail sentence or an NIS 74,300 fine.</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Roads and schools closed as firefighters tackle blazes in Haifa, Neve Shalom and elsewhere

About 80,000 people have been told to evacuate their homes as wildfires swept into Israel's third largest city of Haifa.

The fires follow a two-month drought and are being fanned by strong winds in the north of the city.

Wildfires are also threatening homes near Jerusalem and in the West Bank.

Israel's police chief said arson was suspected in some cases and PM Benjamin Netanyahu said any such attacks would amount to "terror".

"Every fire that was the result of arson or incitement to arson is terror in every way and we'll treat it as such," he was quoted by Haaretz newspaper as saying.

"Anyone who tries to burn parts of the state of Israel will be severely punished."

Police chief Roni Alsheich said that if fires had been started deliberately it was "safe to assume... it is politically-motivated''.

In pictures: Israeli wildfires

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing religious Jewish Home party, also appeared to suggest Arab or Palestinian involvement in the fires, writing on Twitter: "Only those to whom the country does not belong are capable of burning it."

The comments brought an angry reaction from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, which said Israeli officials were "exploiting the fire" to accuse Palestinians.

"What is burning are our trees and our land of historical Palestine," it said in a statement.

On social media, the Arabic-language hashtag #Israel_on_fire began trending, with most tweets expressing pleasure over the outbreak.

Image copyright AP Image caption Huge flames roared between apartment blocks as residents fled

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Channel 10 TV news that eight people had been arrested.

He said arson was suspected in about half of the fires and police had found "flammable materials and liquids poured in certain areas".

"We need to be prepared for a new type of terror," he added.

Israeli media reported that the Shin Bet internal security agency was involved in the investigation.

Meanwhile, hundreds of military reservists have been called up to help battle the three-day outbreak of fires.

In Haifa, the city council said several neighbourhoods will be without electricity overnight.

People loaded up supermarket trolleys with belongings, while schools, kindergartens, universities and an old people's hospital were evacuated.

More than 130 people have been taken to hospital with minor injuries, mainly from smoke inhalation, but most were later discharged, Haaretz reported.

Two prisons near Haifa have also been evacuated.

Further south, Highway 443 - which links Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, crossing through the West Bank - was closed to morning traffic on Thursday as another blaze reached the city of Modi'in.

Homes and cars were damaged, and 300 students were evacuated from a school in Talmon, an Israel settlement in the occupied West Bank, police said.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Months of dry weather have left the country vulnerable to fires

Firefighters have been battling fires in several locations since Tuesday and forecasters are warning that the dry conditions and strong winds are likely to continue until early next week.

Several countries - including Cyprus, Russia, Italy, Croatia and Greece - have sent help and equipment, including aircraft, to help tackle the blazes.

Mr Netanyahu said officials were also contacting the US company which operates a huge firefighting plane known as the "Supertanker".

In 2010, 44 people died in a fire on Mount Carmel, just south of Haifa.

Are you in Haifa? Have you been affected by the wildfires? You can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:</s>Fires continue to rage across Israel. As of this writing, over 200 fires have been reported, thousands have been evacuated from their homes and many people have been hospitalized and treated for injuries. In Haifa close to 75,000 people were evacuated from their homes. On Friday, Nov. 25, new blazes broke out in the Jerusalem area.

A firefighting Supertanker is set to arrive in Israel from the US. The Boeing 747 Supertanker is considered the largest firefighter aircraft in the world. Countries from all over have sent planes and crews to help with the firefighting efforts.

The cause of the fires has not been ascertained, but Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh said Thursday, Nov. 24, that “several” individuals have been arrested on suspicion of arson. Shin Bet said the agency is investigating the possibility that several of the fires were nationalistically motivated terror attacks.

An Israeli village west of Jerusalem was evacuated due to fires raging on its margins, as some firefighting efforts were being diverted from Israel’s north to its center.

The flames nearing the village of Nataf were among three fires reported in the Jerusalem area Friday — the fourth day in which emergency services were battling multiple blazes across Israel, some of which were started by arsonist “terrorists,” according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Whereas fires were largely contained Friday in the northern city of Haifa, new blazes burned in the Jerusalem area — including a forest fire at Ma’aleh Hahamisha, which police traced back to a firebomb, and another fire at Mevo Horon in the West Bank.

On Friday, police arrested 13 people on suspicion of involvement in the fires, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio.

Several people have been treated for smoke inhalation but no serious injuries have been reported due to the fires.

During a visit to Hazor Airbase south of Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said of the fire starters: “These are people who are very hostile to the State of Israel. We’re seeing them operating in small teams and who knows whether they intercommunicate, which they don’t necessarily need to be doing” to keep causing fires.

The fires have been fanned by hot, dry weather and high winds, but some — including in Zichron Ya’akov, near Haifa — were started by arsonists, the head of local firefighting force said following an investigation.

Netanyahu, who on Thursday vowed to punish arsonists, has accepted offers of assistance from the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan, who on Friday joined Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Russia and the United States in offering to help with firefighting equipment and personnel.

Egypt will send two helicopters, Jordan will send several trucks and the Palestinian Authority will dispatch four firefighting trucks as well.

Yona Yahav, the mayor of Haifa, which was one of the cities most heavily hit by the fires, said he was shocked to see the damage during a tour of the affected areas Friday.

“I had a difficult emotional experience,” he told Army Radio. “We take pride in how green our city is, but now everything is painted black.” Some 80,000 people were briefly evacuated from some neighborhoods of Haifa but they were allowed to return to their homes Friday.

Yahav added he had no information on the people who have been arrested on suspicion of arson, but wished to remind listeners that “there wasn’t a single Arab town in the country that didn’t contact me to offer its help.”

This is a developing story. The IJN incorporated reports from TPS and JNF into this story.</s>JERUSALEM — More than 60,000 people from the northern city of Haifa were evacuated from their homes Thursday, as firefighters battled a series of massive blazes that have gripped the country over the past three days.

Five countries, including Russia and Turkey, sent fire fighting planes to assist Israel in tackling the fires, which officials said might have been started intentionally -- possibly for nationalist motives. Israel's internal security agencies are looking into the causes of the fires, which started on Monday night and have broken out in several places around the country since.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Haifa on Thursday evening to meet with fire and police chiefs. He said that if the fires were started by arsonists, those responsible "will be punished gravely."

Israeli officials said that some 10 firefighting planes from Greece, Italy, Croatia and Cyprus, as well as Turkey and Russia, had either arrived in Israel or were on their way to help put out the blazes that have showed no signs of abating.

Netanyahu spoke Thursday morning with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to send two massive firefighting planes that could drop water on the blazes. Local media reported that Israel was planning to bring the supertanker firefighting plane from the U.S. to gain control of the situation but it will only arrive in 24 hours.

Weather experts said the fires, which began in bush areas, had spread widely because of gusty winds following the dry summer months.

In Haifa, the fires, which by Thursday evening had not been brought under control, caused authorities to evacuate residents in at least ten neighborhoods. And while there were no reports of fatalities, damage was said to be widespread and a few hundred people were treated for smoke inhalation. Several large buildings were engulfed by the fires.

In addition to calling for help from abroad and directing all its firefighting forces to Haifa, the Israeli military deployed two search and rescue battalions to the area, and reservists from the Homefront Command were brought in to assist in evacuating civilians.

Some eye witnesses said the city, Israel's third-largest, resembled a "war zone."

The fire in Haifa took residents back to a deadly brush fire in 2010 in which 60 prison guards were burned alive on a bus as they attempted to reach and evacuate a local prison. Israel's prison services said this time, too, it would empty two prisons in the area.

Yael Hamer, a resident of Haifa who was evacuated from her home Thursday, told journalists that the situation now was worse than the fire six years ago because then the fire was contained to the forests next to Haifa.

"Now it is residential areas where there are many private homes. It is near schools, gas stations, and there are a lot of cars that are stuck in traffic jams as people try to leave Haifa," Hamer said.

The first fire broke out Monday night near Neve Shalom, a small community halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where Jews and Arabs live together. Just as that fire was brought under control, another erupted in Zichron Yaakov, a town just south of Haifa. There, dozens of residents were forced from their homes, and several houses were completely destroyed by the fire.

On Wednesday, a fire also broke out in the community of Nataf in the Jerusalem Hills, causing damage to property. Israeli police said they had detained four Palestinians believed to have started the fire, though it was not clear if it was on purpose or by negligence.

Throughout the night Wednesday, firefighters battled blazes in other areas, too. In one place, near the city of Modi'in, police were forced to close down the main highway to Jerusalem. Residents also were evacuated.</s>A lack of rain combined with very dry air and strong easterly winds have spread the fires this week across central and northern Israel, as well as parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Scores of homes have been damaged or destroyed, although no deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

"Almost 50 percent of the fires are apparently arson," Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio, while Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of a far-right party, suggested those who set them could not be Jewish.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators had not yet been able to determine whether any of the dozens of fires reported countrywide had been set deliberately. But he said four people were arrested on Wednesday after negligently starting a bonfire and were set to appear in court on Thursday.

Bennett, the leader of the pro-settler Jewish Home party, said on Twitter that arsonists were disloyal to the state, and hinted that those who set the fires could not be Jewish.

"Only those to whom the country does not belong are capable of burning it," he said in a tweet in Hebrew.

Highway 443, which links Jerusalem and Tel Aviv crossing through the West Bank, was temporarily closed to morning rush-hour traffic on Thursday as flames reached the city of Modi'in, about half way between the two major conurbations.

Large fires were also burning within the boundaries of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, and residents were told to leave their homes.

Israel has requested aerial firefighting support from Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Russia, police spokesman Rosenfeld said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday to his Croatian and Greek counterparts seeking help.

Turkey has also sent a plane to Israel, Netanyahu's office said on Thursday, bringing the total number of foreign aircraft supporting Israel's fire-fighting efforts to 10.

An Israeli squadron of firefighting aircraft has been in action since the fires took hold on Monday, dumping payloads of red fire-retardant material on the flames.

Rosenfeld said most of the smaller fires were under control but there were still four major blazes that needed tackling.

Local weather forecasters have said the tinder-dry conditions -- it has not rained in parts of Israel for months -- and strong winds are set to continue for several days and they see little prospect of usual seasonal rains arriving.

"I am asthmatic and I'm worried that the winds make the fires difficult to tackle. If arson is involved, this is far from over," said Catherine Gordon, a Modi'in resident.

In 2010 a major forest fire in northern Israel in similar weather conditions that raged for several days killed 42 people, prompting reform of firefighting services and the establishment of the airborne firefighting squadron.</s>HAIFA, Israel -- A wildfire roared through parts of Israel's third-largest city Thursday, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes as the country's leaders raised the possibility that Arab assailants had intentionally set the blaze.

Spreading quickly in the dry, windy conditions, the fire raced through Haifa's northern neighborhoods, sending panicked residents fleeing.

While there were no serious injuries, several dozen people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation. In a rare move, Israel called up hundreds of military reservists to join overstretched police and firefighters and was making use of an international fleet of firefighting aircraft sent by several countries, including Russia and Turkey.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Thursday morning with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to send two firefighting planes that could drop water on the blazes. Media outlets reported that a supertanker firefighting plane would arrive from the United States in 24 hours.

The Haifa blaze was the most serious in a series of fires that ignited across the country in recent days. On a visit to the area, Netanyahu said anyone implicated in setting the fires would be punished severely.

"It's a crime for all intents and purposes and in our opinion it is terror for all intents and purposes," he said.

Netanyahu did not elaborate on the identity or motives of the suspected arsonists, but Israeli officials typically use the term "terror" to refer to Arab or Palestinian militant activity.

Israel has been on edge during more than a year of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, that have tapered off in recent months but not halted. Netanyahu has blamed Palestinian incitement for fueling those attacks.

Netanyahu's accusations could test already brittle relations between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority, which has long suffered discrimination in Israel and says it has been slighted by rhetoric from Netanyahu and other Israeli officials in the past.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Channel 10 TV news that eight people had been arrested and that authorities had found "flammable materials and liquids poured in certain areas," a find that pointed to arson. He said arson was suspected in about half of the fires.

Israeli media said the Shin Bet internal security agency was helping search for perpetrators, while Erdan said, "we need to be prepared for a new type of terror."

"It's safe to assume that whoever is setting the fires isn't doing it only out of pyromania," said Israel's police chief, Roni Alsheich. "It's safe to assume that if it is arson it is politically motivated."

Ayman Odeh, the head of a joint Arab bloc of parties in Israel's parliament and a Haifa native, appealed to Israelis to come together and abandon "politics" during the trying time.

"This is something that harms all of us. This is not a story of Arab or Jew. Whoever did this is an enemy of all of us," he told Israeli Channel 2 TV news.

The Palestinians meanwhile offered to send firefighting teams to help combat the flames, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. Yousef Nassar, the director general of the Palestinian Civil Defense, said the offer of assistance was "a humanitarian message."

The Palestinians assisted Israel during a deadly wildfire in 2010. Israel's response to the offer was not immediately known.

The rash of fires is the worst since 2010, when Israel suffered the single deadliest wildfire in its history. That blaze burned out of control for four days, killed 42 people and was extinguished only after firefighting aircraft arrived from as far away as the United States.

Israel has strengthened its firefighting capabilities since then, buying special planes that can drop large quantities of water.

Several countries, including Russia, France, Cyprus, Turkey, Croatia, Greece and Italy also were sending assistance to battle this week's blazes.

Yael Hamer, a resident of Haifa who was evacuated from her home Thursday, told journalists that the situation now was worse than the fire six years ago, when the fire was contained to the forests next to Haifa.

"Now it is residential areas where there are many private homes. It is near schools, gas stations, and there are a lot of cars that are stuck in traffic jams as people try to leave Haifa," Hamer said.

Residents of eight neighborhoods were told to evacuate their homes Thursday afternoon, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Or Doron, a spokesman for the city of Haifa, said some 50,000 people had been evacuated.

Police and firefighters were deployed throughout the city, as people loaded up supermarket carts with belongings and fled their homes. Some people connected hoses together from apartment buildings to help battle the fires, while residents held cloths over their faces.

The military said it deployed two search-and-rescue battalions to assist civilian efforts. It also called up about 500 reserve soldiers to back up the police and fire departments.

Police said the blazes started early Tuesday at Neve Shalom, a community outside Jerusalem where Jews and Arabs live together. Fires later flared up elsewhere near Jerusalem and in the northern Israeli area of Zichron Yaakov.

Information for this article was contributed by Ruth Eglash of The Washington Post.</s>(JTA) — An Israeli village west of Jerusalem was evacuated due to fires raging on its margins, as some firefighting efforts were being diverted from Israel’s north to its center.

The flames nearing the village of Nataf were among three fires reported in the Jerusalem area Friday — the fourth day in which emergency services were battling multiple blazes across Israel, some of which were started by arsonist “terrorists,” according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Whereas fires were largely contained Friday in the northern city of Haifa, new blazes burned in the Jerusalem area — including a forest fire at Ma’aleh Hahamisha, which police traced back to a firebomb, and another fire at Mevo Horon in the West Bank.

On Friday, police arrested 13 people on suspicion of involvement in the fires, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio.

Several people have been treated for smoke inhalation but no serious injuries have been reported due to the fires.

During a visit to Hazor Airbase south of Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said of the fire starters: “These are people who are very hostile to the State of Israel. We’re seeing them operating in small teams and who knows whether they intercommunicate, which they don’t necessarily need to be doing” to keep causing fires.

The fires have been fanned by hot, dry weather and high winds, but some — including in Zichron Ya’akov, near Haifa — were started by arsonists, the head of local firefighting force said following an investigation.

Netanyahu, who on Thursday vowed to punish arsonists, has accepted offers of assistance from the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan, who on Friday joined Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Russia and the United States in offering to help with firefighting equipment and personnel.

Egypt will send two helicopters, Jordan will send several trucks and the Palestinian Authority will dispatch four firefighting trucks as well.

Yona Yahav, the mayor of Haifa, which was one of the cities most heavily hit by the fires, said he was shocked to see the damage during a tour of the affected areas Friday.

“I had a difficult emotional experience,” he told Army Radio. “We take pride in how green our city is, but now everything is painted black.” Some 80,000 people were briefly evacuated from some neighborhoods of Haifa but they were allowed to return to their homes Friday.

Yahav added he had no information on the people who have been arrested on suspicion of arson, but wished to remind listeners that “there wasn’t a single Arab town in the country that didn’t contact me to offer its help.”</s>JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that fires burning throughout Israel that are the result of arson are “terror in every way.”

“Every fire that was the result of arson or incitement to arson is terror in every way and we’ll treat it as such. Anyone who tries to burn parts of the State of Israel will be severely punished,” Netanyahu said during a news conference in Haifa.

Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan confirmed that some arrests have been made, and that police are tracking down other leads.

“Every single fire will be examined to see whether it was arson, and we bring the full force of the law against those behind it,” Erdan said at the news conference Thursday evening.

Police chief Roni Alsheich earlier had confirmed that some of the fires were arson.

More than 60,000 people have been evacuated from homes and businesses in Haifa as fires blazed across the dry and windy country for the third day. Two prisons near Haifa also were evacuated. In communities across Israel fires have led to evacuations and have destroyed and damaged some homes.

Fires near Jerusalem closed Route 443, a main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, for part of the day. Fires also broke out in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank, and burned in central Israel. On Tuesday and Wednesday, fires led to the evacuation of thousands from Zichron Yaakov, located at the southern tip of the Carmel Forest in northern Israel, destroying several homes.

Arab lawmakers accused Israeli officials of inciting against the Arab community in asserting that some of the fires were deliberately set.

“It is a disgrace, Umm al-Fahm is also harmed,” said joint Arab List party head Ayman Odeh, referring to a northern Israeli Arab town “This is a thing that hurts us all; this is not about Arabs versus Jews. Whoever did this is the enemy of us all.”

Netanyahu said that Israel is considering hiring an American supertanker to help defeat the fires.

Cyprus, Britain, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Russia, and Italy have all sent fire-fighting aircraft, and Romania and Bulgaria reportedly have sent other assistance.</s>Jerusalem (CNN) Tens of thousands of residents of the Israeli port city of Haifa were allowed to return home Friday, as firefighters who have been battling wildfires for the past four days brought the flames menacing the city under control.

Israeli authorities have warned that any fires deliberately set will be regarded as terrorism.

By Friday, 12 people had been detained in connection to the fires, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, although it was not immediately clear if they were suspected of arson or negligence.

A boy stands next to a burnt car in Zikhron Ya'akov on November 23.

A boy stands next to a burnt car in Zikhron Ya'akov on November 23.

Relly Golan surveys the ruins of her burned home in Zikhron Ya'akov on November 23.

Relly Golan surveys the ruins of her burned home in Zikhron Ya'akov on November 23.

Officials watch fires from a home that was burned in Nataf on November 23.

Officials watch fires from a home that was burned in Nataf on November 23.

A plane drops fire retardant on wildfires in the hills near Nataf, Israel, on November 23.

A plane drops fire retardant on wildfires in the hills near Nataf, Israel, on November 23.

Two people document a Haifa fire on their cell phones on November 24.

Two people document a Haifa fire on their cell phones on November 24.

A woman sprays water toward a fire from a rooftop in Haifa on November 24.

A woman sprays water toward a fire from a rooftop in Haifa on November 24.

Residents of Haifa, Israel, fight a wildfire with a hose on Thursday, November 24. Israel is battling its most serious wildfires since 2010. Days of strong dry easterly winds have been driving the flames, Israeli meteorologist Dani Rup told CNN.

Residents of Haifa, Israel, fight a wildfire with a hose on Thursday, November 24. Israel is battling its most serious wildfires since 2010. Days of strong dry easterly winds have been driving the flames, Israeli meteorologist Dani Rup told CNN.

The blazes scorching northern Israel began Tuesday in the northern community of Zichron Ya'akov, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Haifa. Fires broke out the following day near Modi'in in central Israel.

Authorities had ordered the evacuation of 60,000 people in Haifa as fires menaced 11 neighborhoods. Strong winds Friday morning fanned new flames.

But a spokesman for Israel's Coast district police, which includes Haifa, told CNN early Friday afternoon local time that all Haifa residents were now free to return to their homes.

Mayor Yona Yahav said Thursday that 700 homes in the city had been damaged or destroyed, describing the scale of the fire as "unprecedented in Haifa."

Uri Chobotaro, of the Coast region fire and rescue services, said all the fires in Haifa are now out but there is always the danger of flames reigniting from smoldering embers.

The fire at Zichron Ya'akov, now extinguished, was definitely arson, according to Chobotaro.

All major fires in the country are now out or under control, authorities said.

Netanyahu says arsonists will be punished

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said if the fires were deliberately set it would amount to "terrorism," and vowed to severely punish anyone who "tries to burn parts of Israel," Reuters reported.

"Every fire that was caused by arson, or incitement to arson, is terrorism by all accounts. And we will treat it as such."

Friday morning, the Prime Minister visited the location of a large overnight fire in Bet Meir, about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) west of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, now brought under control.

"The most important thing is to evacuate people, and also yourselves. Nobody needs to die here, nobody," Netanyahu told firefighters.

Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Thursday it was "quite clear that a good amount of the fires were caused by arson and, as the Prime Minister said, there is a new phenomenon of arson terrorism."

The fires have prompted wide discussion among Palestinians on social media. Some posts linked the fires to current proposed Israeli legislation that could ban loudspeakers broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer, suggesting the fires were a punishment from God and sparking the controversial #israelisburning hashtag on Twitter.

This celebratory response triggered an angry backlash from others, including some among Israel's Arab population, who pointed out that many who see themselves as Palestinians live in those places being ravaged by fire, or have families who originally came from these areas.

Ayman Odeh, an Arab Israeli Knesset lawmaker who lives in Haifa, appeared on TV Friday morning criticizing those Israeli politicians and media who were blaming the fires on Palestinians.

"During this stormy day, I have been moving between different media, in an attempt to say this clearly: This is our home and it is our duty to preserve it. Now is the time for joint cooperation, to help evacuate the elderly and all those who need help," he wrote on Facebook.

Palestinian fire trucks sent to help

According to Magen David Adom, Israel's ambulance service, 35 people have been treated for light smoke inhalation across the country since the fires broke out earlier this week.

The Israel Defense Forces' Homefront Command has deployed two search-and-rescue battalions to assist civilian efforts.

The Palestinian Civil Defense also provided eight fire trucks Thursday in response to an Israeli request for help, according to Nael Al-Azzeh of the Palestinian Civil Defense, based in West Bank city of Ramallah.

There were 88 fires in total Thursday in the West Bank, he said, mostly around the cities of Ramallah, Nablus and Tulkarem.

A large fire that blazed in Harashim, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) to the northeast of Haifa, was extinguished as of Friday afternoon.

According to Ran Sheluf, head of the investigation unit of the Israel fire and rescue services, more than 1,500 fires had been reported over the past week.

"This is twice the usual number," he said. "The cause of the fires is either negligence or being started deliberately."

To help battle the blazes, Netanyahu requested assistance from world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia is sending two giant Beriev Be-200 firefighting aircraft to assist with the operation after the two leaders spoke on the telephone.

Turkey, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Cyprus are also assisting Israeli authorities.

Italy's ambassador to Israel, Francesco M. Talo', tweeted images of Italian planes preparing to take to the air.

A specially adapted Boeing 747 called the Supertanker, owned by a private American firefighting business, is also on its way to Israel.
Around 50,000 people are evacuated as fires rage throughout the Israeli city of Haifa. The Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan says at least half the fires are to due to arson.