A fire broke out Friday morning near the settlement of Negohot at Mount Hebron. Residents of the Booster neighborhood were evacuated from their homes.

Teams of firefighters, Magen David Adom and the IDF are on their way to the scene.

The Nature and Parks Authority asked the public not to travel in open areas, even on bicycle tracks, because of the extreme weather.

Earlier, Route 44 from Rishon Lezion to the Nahshon Junction was blocked for vehicular traffic in both directions due to a fire in the woods in the area. Traffic police officers are at the checkpoints.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) participated in the assessment of the situation in the command post established at Tel Hadid, north of the Ben Shemen Forest.

Netanyahu said during the assessment that he intends to implement the recommendations to improve the firefighting system, which was severely criticized by the state comptroller five months ago. "We will prepare better and implement the decisions to improve the firefighting system this year," the Prime Minister promised.