Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians find a common enemy: Natural disasters
Emergency response teams from around the world work together in EU-sponsored exercise on fighting forest fires, earthquakes
By Judah Ari Gross
Natural disasters have a nasty habit of not respecting lines drawn on a map. Forest fires can start in one country and end in another; earthquakes can wreak havoc on entire regions.
To prepare for those threats, emergency response teams from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, as well as Spain, Italy and France, gathered in the Jewish state this week to learn how to work together and swap techniques, as part of an exercise sponsored by the European Union.
The exercise was dubbed “Middle East Forest Fires” — something of a misnomer as earthquakes, as well as blazes, were simulated.
The simulated massive forest fire spread throughout Israel, the West Bank and Jordan, requiring teams from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to work together with help from European nations, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
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