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Amity from the Ashes: Firefighters Who Came to Help Israel

(Jerusalem Post) Eliyahu Kamisher and Adam Rasgon - Firefighters from Cyprus, the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority came at the request of the Israeli government to help battle blazes that engulfed the country last week. Nathaniel Benjamin Andreou, 35, a firefighter for the Cyprus Forestry Department, said that in Israel the Cypriots split up into seven teams. Andreou's team was tasked with putting out "hot spots" in the Jerusalem hills. He recalled that "In June we had the biggest fire in our history [in Cyprus]. We lost 19 square km. of forest; the fire was burning for three days....That's when the Israeli firefighters and airplanes came." Majd al-Qadri, 27, a Palestinian Authority firefighter, said the PA Civil Defense mobilized eight fire trucks, sending four into the foothills of Jerusalem and four others into Haifa and its environs. "We have a duty to help anyone who calls for our help, regardless of citizenship or religion," he said. Qadri said of his Israeli counterparts and the Jerusalemites, "They treated us excellently. We had no problems with anyone, be it the firefighters, the army, or the people. Everyone constantly made sure that we had everything we needed."
2016-12-02 00:00:00
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