国际英语新闻：Israeli teenager admits causing Carmel fire

JERUSALEM, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli teenager on Monday admitted throwing a piece of burning charcoal into the woods, causing the massive fire that ravaged northern Israel in the past three days, local daily Ha'aretz reported.

Police suspected the 14-year-old of negligence and detained him early Monday. The boy confessed his acts to the investigators afterwards, saying that he smoked waterpipe near the Druze village of Usfiya and later hurled burning charcoal into the forest. After seeing large fire broke out, the panic boy ran away without reporting to anyone.

Usfiya is located at northern Israel's Carmel mountain range, where the massive bushfire broke out early Thursday. The fire claimed 41 lives, forced the evacuation of 17,000 residents from their homes and left behind 50 square km of torched land before being fully subdued on Sunday evening.

Damages from what the Israeli officials called "the historic disaster" will amount to 810 million U.S dollars to 1.08 billion U. S. dollars. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a decision taken at Sunday's weekly cabinet session has instructed the Finance Ministry to immediately allocate 60 million shekels ( about 16.5 million U.S. dollars) in an aid package to regional councils and residents of kibbutzim and Druse villages in the area.