Israeli firefighters have reined in a blaze that had spread across the country's third-largest city of Haifa, but continue to battle more than a dozen other fires around the country for a fourth day.
About 60,000 had yet to return to their homes on Friday as police and firefighting units were still heavily deployed in the Haifa area for fear the fire could be reignited due to the dry, windy weather.
Though no serious injuries were caused, several dozen people were hospitalised for smoke inhalation.
Hundreds of homes were damaged and in a rare move, Israel on Thursday called up military reservists to join overstretched police and firefighters and made use of firefighting aircraft sent by several countries.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a small village in the forests near Jerusalem was evacuated overnight as several homes there caught fire.
Overall, he said 12 people have been arrested across Israel on suspicion of arson.
The country's leaders have raised the possibility that Arab assailants had intentionally set the blazes.
Israeli police chief Roni Alsheich told reporters on Thursday that early indications pointed towards "politically motivated" arson.
The fires began three days ago at the Neve Shalom community near Jerusalem where Israelis and Arabs live together.
Later, blazes erupted in the northern Israeli area of Zichron Yaakov and elsewhere near Jerusalem before the largest ones spread across Haifa.
The rash of fires is the worst since 2010, when a blazed burnt out of control for four days and killed 42 people, making it the single deadliest wildfire in Israel's history.
