Israel ordered thousands of people to be quarantined after a contentious telephone surveillance program resumed, as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank came back to life under lockdown after an increase in coronavirus cases in both areas.
A statement Sunday by Israel’s health ministry said “many” messages had been sent to Israelis after renewed involvement by the national security agency Shin Bet. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that more than 30,000 people were notified that they must be quarantined as of Thursday.
After imposing stringent measures at first during the first wave of infections, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories appeared to contain their outbreaks, with each reporting only a few dozen new cases per day in May.
But a decrease in restrictions led to a steady rebound in cases over the past month.
“We are at the height of a new crown offensive. This is a very strong outbreak that is growing and spreading around the world and also here,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
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“We are in a state of emergency,” he said, adding that Israel would need to take drastic measures to control the virus.
Israel is now reporting around 1,000 new cases per day, more than its peak during the previous wave. It is configured to re-impose restrictions on response, limiting occupancy in bars, houses of worship and event spaces to 50 people. It also requires citizens to wear masks and has called for stricter social distancing.
Since the start of the outbreak, Israel has seen more than 29,000 cases and 330 deaths. More than 17,000 people have recovered.
Telephone surveillance
With its contact tracing device struggling to keep up with the growing number of cases, Israel last week redistributed the Shin Bet home security service to use its sophisticated telephone surveillance technology to track down Israelis who have been in contact with infected people, and then notify them that they must enter their homes. quarantine.
The measure is typically used to thwart attacks by tracking down Palestinian fighters. The contentious tactic was used when the outbreak emerged earlier this year.
When challenged by civil rights groups in the country’s Supreme Court, the court threatened to suspend its use unless it was brought under legislative oversight. Since then, the Israeli Knesset has done so twice using temporary legislation, most recently on Wednesday.
In the occupied West Bank, residents have been ordered to stay home unless they need to buy food or medicine. [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
While officials have defended the practice as a life-saving measure, civil rights groups attacked it as an assault on privacy rights. Analysts say the move may act as a dragnet that could unnecessarily force some to quarantine.
Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from West Jerusalem, said Israel’s telephone monitoring provoked outrage from human rights groups, but the government deemed it necessary.
“This is the third time that the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet has been sanctioned to control people’s phones,” he said.
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“This is not an application that people voluntarily download. Here the security service controls who people have partnered with and sends a text message to quarantine if it is assessed that they need to.”
Israeli media reported thousands ordered for home quarantine, many Israelis complained that they struggled to appeal quarantine orders because the health ministry hotline was overwhelmed and ill-equipped to handle such a deluge.
Critics alleged that amid declining cases, Israel let its guard down, reopened too quickly, and was unable to take advantage of its time to improve its contact-tracking capabilities to deal with a second wave.
Netanyahu, who was seen largely as capable of handling the first wave, has suffered in public opinion polls for his approach this time. In May, he proudly urged Israelis to go out, have a coffee or a beer, and “have fun”.
Blockade in the occupied West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, residents were ordered on Friday to stay home unless they need to buy food or medicine.
On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas extended the state of emergency in the territory for 30 days, a measure that allows officials to impose additional virus restrictions, including extending the blockades, prohibiting movement between cities and deploying security forces. security.
Palestinian authorities fear that if the outbreak gets out of control, it could overwhelm their health system with insufficient resources.
In the past two weeks, Palestinian health authorities reported more than 1,700 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the occupied city of Hebron, in the West Bank, and hundreds more in Bethlehem and Nablus.
The West Bank has reported more than 3,700 cases since the outbreak began. More than 400 have died.
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