00:00A national emergency has been called in Israel as strong winds and high temperatures have fueled wildfires outside of Jerusalem.
00:19Fire crews have been battling the fires there with several people reported who've been suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.
00:27It's according to Israel's medical emergency services there.
00:31Let's speak to our Middle East correspondent Yolan Nell.
00:34Yolan, talk us through the situation there.
00:38So from what we understand, there are still about six areas in the hills outside of Jerusalem where you've got firefighters battling these flames.
00:46They're being helped by the Israeli army as well.
00:50There are several towns in that area that have been evacuated.
00:54About 3,000 acres of land have been burnt.
00:58Now, when the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talking about this, he said there had been a deadly combination of dryness and strong winds.
01:07You can see the wind is starting to pick up again now.
01:10In some cases, arson is suspected.
01:12Also, poor land management.
01:14And inevitably, the Israeli media is really picking over this today, talking about the state's level of preparedness for such wildfires.
01:23Because this is said to have been the biggest fire that the country has experienced.
01:28And Israel has become more prone to wildfires of this kind in recent years, with experts warning that climate change is just going to make it even more prone, that their fire hazard is increasing.
01:42Yolande, thank you for that.
01:45Well, let's speak now to BBC weather presenter Simon King, who's standing by for us.
01:50Simon, just talk us through what's been happening.
01:52Yes, Sir Lewis, of course, the wildfire itself may have been started by arson or other methods there, as Yolande said, about the poor land management.
02:01But, of course, when a fire starts, you look to the weather conditions, to how severe or how far they may spread.
02:07Now, in Israel and Jerusalem, we've been seeing some strong winds recently.
02:12The gusts today are up to about 50, 60 kilometres an hour.
02:15And they, of course, just fan these flames.
02:19And they're coming in from a westerly direction, which means, at the moment, they are on the border of Israel and Jerusalem.
02:24And there is concern that with that westerly wind, it will push the flames a little bit further eastward into Jerusalem itself.
02:31Now, temperatures across Israel and Jerusalem haven't actually been that high, around the average, really, of about 22 to 25 degrees Celsius.
02:40But, of course, we're now going into the dry season in that region.
02:44So, of course, the vegetation is very dry already.
02:48So, when you get these fires that start, that's when they can spread really quite quickly.
02:53Simon, thank you.
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