Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday announced that Israel would begin using advanced digital monitoring tools to track carriers of the coronavirus, raising major privacy concerns and prompting accusations of mass surveillance.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will task Blue and White leader Benny Gantz with forming the next government, after the leftist former IDF chief gained a majority of seats in the Knesset with unexpected support.

Islamic religious authorities have closed the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock as a precautionary measure against the spread of the coronavirus. However, outdoor prayers will still be permitted outside the two shrines housed in Jerusalem.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel climbed to 164 on Saturday, up 21 from Friday, with nearly 40,000 currently in home quarantines according to the Israeli Health Ministry. Of those with the virus, two are still in serious condition, 10 are in moderate condition, and four have recovered.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting at his office in Jerusalem late on Saturday afternoon to discuss further, more stringent measures Israel may take to halt the coronavirus pandemic.

Already buffeted by political gridlock and facing a shuttering of key industries over the coronavirus threat, Israelis were informed on Thursday they should brace themselves for yet another storm — a literal one this time.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will task Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White rival Benny Gantz with forming the next government Sunday, as lawmakers across the political spectrum are calling for an emergency government to deal with the novel coronavirus.

An effective Israeli-developed vaccine for coronavirus is on track to be ready for testing within “a few weeks,” though it won’t be available for months because of the lengthy and sometimes bureaucratic testing and approval process, a member of the development team said Tuesday.

The chairman of the Arab-majority Joint List, Ayman Odeh, has named his key demands for supporting a Blue and White-led minority government.

Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s request to delay his corruption trial on the grounds that his defense team has not received all of the relevant material from the prosecution.

The Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy responded in February to a UN ‘blacklist’ of Israeli companies highlighted for supposed human rights abuses with an expose detailing the terror-links of the groups that lobbied for the list’s creation.

Israel has imposed quarantine conditions on all incoming flights in a move that the Finance Ministry predicts will cost the country $1.4 billion.

The US Army said it was curbing its plans to adopt the Iron Dome missile defense system due to concerns about its compatibility with existing US technologies, scrapping its plans to buy two more batteries and explore long-term integration of the Israel-developed system.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the coronavirus was a pandemic more severe than any disease outbreak in the past century, as a senior official said Israel was likely hours away from placing restrictions on flights arriving from some parts of the United States.

The novel coronavirus spreading across the world is already at a ‘pandemic’ stage, a top Israeli health official said Thursday, though world health authorities have held off from declaring a global outbreak.

A full 68 hours after the polling stations closed and exit polls predicted a surge for Likud and its right-wing bloc, the Central Elections Committee on Thursday confirmed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party as the largest after Monday’s general election, with final results giving it 36 seats to rival Blue and White’s 33.

As votes cast in so-called double envelopes in the Knesset elections were being tallied, the Central Election Committee updated the count Wednesday morning, giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the centrist rival Blue and White led by Benny Gantz an extra seat apiece, leaving the premier’s bloc of right-wing supporters at 58 seats.

The Israel Defense Forces called off a major air defense exercise with the United States on Wednesday night, a day after it launched, following stricter safety restrictions issued by the Health Ministry aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

Damascus said early Thursday that Israel was carrying out airstrikes in central and southern Syria and that its air defenses had engaged the missiles.

With 92% of the vote counted Tuesday from unprecedented third elections in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing bloc were slated to beat rival Benny Gantz and the Blue and White party with 59 seats in the 120-member Knesset.