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Israel will reestablish a strict blockade across the country this week amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement in a televised speech on Sunday.
Starting on Friday, the eve of the Jewish New Year, schools, restaurants, shopping centers and hotels among other businesses will be closed and restrictions on movement will be imposed.
Benjamin Netanyahu said that the blockade will demand a ‘difficult price’ (Alex Kolomoisky / AP) “>“Our goal is to stop the increase (in cases) and reduce morbidity,” Netanyahu said.
“I know these steps come at a difficult price for all of us.
“These are not the vacations we are used to.”
The tightening of the measures marks the second time Israel has entered a lockdown after a long lockdown in the spring.
That’s credited with reducing what were once much lower infection numbers, but it wreaked havoc on the country’s economy, causing unemployment to skyrocket.
The lockdown will remain in place for at least three weeks, at which point officials are expected to relax measures if numbers are seen to decline.
Israelis often hold large family gatherings and crowd synagogues during the important Yom Kippur fast, scenarios officials fear could trigger further outbreaks.
Yaakov Litzman has resigned due to the confinement (Jack Guez / AP) “>A sticking point in the government’s deliberations on the shutdown was what the prayers will look like over the holidays.
Strict limits on the faithful led Israeli Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman, who represents ultra-Orthodox Jews, to resign from the government.
Israel has had more than 150,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and more than 1,100 deaths.
Given its population of nine million, the country now has one of the worst outbreaks in the world.
It currently registers more than 4,000 daily cases of the virus.
A demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of his official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday (Sebastian Scheiner / AP) “>Israel earned praise for its initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak, moving quickly to seal the country’s borders and appearing to control infections.
Since then, he has come under fire for opening businesses and schools too quickly and allowing the virus to spread uncontrollably.
Much of that criticism has been directed at Netanyahu, who has faced a public outcry over his handling of the crisis and has seen thousands of protesters arrive at his Jerusalem residence each week.
While praised for his decisive response after the spring outbreak, Netanyahu seemed distracted by politics and personal matters, including his trial on corruption allegations, as infections spiked over the summer.
He has also been criticized for appearing to have given in to pressure from various interest groups, including, most recently, his ultra-Orthodox ruling partners, who appeared to have convinced him to abandon a particular city closure plan that would have primarily affected the ultra-Orthodox. and Arab communities.
At Sunday’s press conference announcing the shutdown, Netanyahu defended his response, saying that Israel’s economy had emerged from the first shutdown in a better state than many other developed nations.
He said that while the cases are high, the country’s coronavirus mortality figures are lower than in other countries with similar outbreaks.
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