Politicians and pundits demanded the resignation of Israeli officials for failure to quell an inferno that has scorched 12,000 acres (5,000 hectares) of woodland, destroyed millions of trees and an estimated dozens of homes.
Criticism also came from inside Netanyahu's fractious ruling coalition. "We need to take stock nationally as to how we, as such an advanced sophisticated state, achieved such a resounding failure," Welfare Minister Yitzhak Herzog of the centre-left Labour Party said on Israel's Army Radio.
With Netanyahu having made a visible effort to muster global aid and monitor efforts to fight the blaze at the weekend, most critics targeted Interior Minister Eli Yishai, whose job it is to oversee the firefighters.
Many demanded that Yishai, of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a pivotal coalition partner in Netanyahu's government, resign for inadequate preparation of the firefighting system, which has not been able to bring the blaze under control.
"In a proper country, after such a failure you simply go home," said Yaron Dekel, host of a popular Israel Radio talk show, naming both Yishai and the Israeli fire chief.
Netanyahu convened his cabinet on Sunday in Tirat Carmel, a fire-stricken town, and he pledged to rebuild the area "in the quickest possible way."
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