Ein Kedem

In November 2016, a wave of wildfires and urban fires occurred in Israel from Beersheva in the south to Nahariya in the north. Some of the fires occurred naturally; others were arson attacks. On November 28, after eight days of fire fighting, the firefighting services announced that the emergency condition was over. Firefighters fought 1,773 fires, at least 39 were reported as major fires that required at least ten crews or more. The largest fire occurred in Haifa, where 527 apartments were destroyed among 77 buildings, leaving 1,600 people homeless. Some 75,000 residents, about a quarter of the city's population, were evacuated from eleven neighborhoods. Other major fires occurred in Zikhron Ya'akov and in the Jerusalem area, as well as smaller fires throughout Israel and the West Bank. Israel's Nature and Parks Authority reported that more than 20,000 dunams of forests, brush land, and open space were burnt, the largest amount since the 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire.