\Jerusalem (CNN) -- At least 40 people have been killed in a massive wildfire blazing its way through northern Israel, Israeli authorities said Friday.
The Israeli Cabinet was meeting Friday in Tel Aviv to formulate a response.
The fire, bolstered by strong winds, blanketed Haifa, Israeli's second-largest city, in smoke. It was not clear how the fire started, but police were investigating if the blaze started in an illegal dumping ground.
Thousands of people have been evacuated due to the fire as firefighting equipment was scrambled to the area, according to emergency officials.
Fire-fighting aircraft pledged by various countries began to arrive in Israel Friday morning as more offers of help from around the world came in.
Several nations, including Turkey, were sending firefighting planes, Israel's Foreign Ministry said. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been tense since last spring, when Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, killing nine people.
In addition to Turkey's sending two planes, Greece was sending four, France two, Cyprus two, and one each from Croatia, Russia and Azebaijan, the ministry said.
Spain was sending four aircraft, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "The necessary means are not currently in the field but they are on the way here," he said, adding that he planned to request more planes from Russia.
The United States is sending a Boeing 747 filled with chemical retardants to help fight the flames.
The wildfire erupted Thursday near Haifa and has consumed thousands of acres in Carmel Forest.
Many of the deaths appear to be the result of a bus accident.
A bus carrying up to 50 people overturned "allegedly after the driver lost control of the vehicle because of the fire and surrounding smoke" as it was traveling between kibbutz Beit Oren and Damon Prison, the IDF website said.
It was not clear from the IDF website how many of the deaths attributed to fire occurred in the bus accident, but the newspaper Haaretz reported that all 40 of the dead were on the bus.
Inmates of the prison were evacuated to temporary jails nearby.
Netanyahu's office called it one of the worst fires in Israel's history and ordered the military to assist rescue and firefighting efforts.
He urged people, including the news media, to stay away from the blaze, which he called "a fire on an international scale."
He predicted that the fire would take time to douse and called for calm. "I think that together, we will surmount this."
"We must achieve two goals -- saving lives and putting out the fire, " Netanyahu said Thursday night at the forward command center, according to his media adviser.
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