Israel announces joint firefighting training with Jordan and Palestine

Jordan

Published: 2017-08-12 11:12

Last Updated: 2024-03-29 04:36


Jordanian ambassador to Israel, Walid Obeidat at a ceremony in Tel Aviv following Israel's November 2016 fires.
Jordanian ambassador to Israel, Walid Obeidat at a ceremony in Tel Aviv following Israel's November 2016 fires.

Jordanian firefighting units of the Civil Defense Directorate (CDD) will partake in an EU-sponsored firefighting training with Palestinian and Israeli civil defense units in occupied territories.

The special and unprecedented training course, called the Middle-East Forest Fire, will be held between the 22nd and 26th of October, and will involve simulated emergency scenarios for rescuing trapped civilians in case of large fires.

A few months ago, Israel held a ceremony to thank the pilots, firefighting personnel, and the ambassadors of all the countries that participated in putting out Israel’s 2016 forest fires, which displaced tens of thousands.

Jordanian ambassador to Israel, Walid Obeidat and Jordanian CDD personnel attended the ceremony in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli fires of November 2016 lasted five days, and have ravaged thousands of acres of occupied Palestinian land.

Attempts to contain the fire by Israeli authorities failed, which urged Israel to request aid from nearby countries like Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Turkey, and Cyprus.

The Jordanian CDD's participation in the firefighting efforts in Israel was a hot topic in Jordanian media, and the Jordanian government justified it by saying it was a humanitarian effort several countries from the region were taking part in.