Russia sent a third plane to Israel on Saturday to help put out the largest wildfire in the region's history, a spokeswoman for the Russian Emergencies Ministry said.
She said the Il-76 aircraft, which is capable of dropping 42 tons of water in one sweep, departed from the Ramenskoe airfield in the Moscow region on Saturday morning.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry has also sent an Mi-26 helicopter and a team of specialists.
Large-scale wildfires broke out near the Israeli northwestern port of Haifa, home to 250,000 people, on Thursday, killing at least 40 people and forcing some 15,000 to leave their homes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has admitted that the country is not ready to fight the fires, the worst since the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, and requested Russia, as well as Greece, Cyprus, Spain and some other countries used to tackling large-scale wildfires, to provide assistance.
Yuri Brazhnikov, who heads the Russian Emergencies Ministry's department in charge of international activities, said on Thursday Russian aircraft would remain in Israel for at least 10 days and that Russia was ready to send more firefighting planes and equipment to the fire-hit country if needed.
Most of those killed by the blaze were prison guards who were going by bus to evacuate detainees from a jail in the fire-hit area.
Israeli police are studying various causes of the fires, including arson, a local police spokesman told RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW, December 4 (RIA Novosti)
