Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced that a new nationwide lockdown will be imposed amid a surge in coronavirus cases, with schools and parts of the economy expected to shut down in a bid to bring down infection rates.
Beginning Friday at 6 a.m., the start of the Jewish High Holiday season, schools, restaurants, malls and hotels will shut down, among other businesses, and Israelis will face restrictions on movement and on gatherings.
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"Our goal is to stop the increase [in cases] and lower morbidity," Netanyahu said in a televised statement. "I know that these steps come at a difficult price for all of us. This is not the holiday we are used to."
The tightening of measures marks the second time Israel is being plunged into a lockdown, after a lengthy shutdown in the spring. That lockdown is credited with having brought down what were much lower infection numbers, but it wreaked havoc on the country's economy, sending unemployment skyrocketing.
The lockdown will remain in place for at least three weeks, at which point officials may relax measures if numbers are seen declining. Israelis typically hold large family gatherings and pack synagogues during the important fast of Yom Kippur later this month, settings that officials feared could trigger new outbreaks.
A sticking point in government deliberations over the lockdown was what prayers would look like during the holidays. While the details on prayer during the lockdown were not nailed down in the government decision, there were expected to be strict limits on the faithful. That prompted Housing Minister Yakov Litzman, who heads the United Torah Judaism party, to resign from the government earlier Sunday.
Israel has had more than 150,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 1,100 deaths. Given its population of 9 million, the country now has one of the world's worst outbreaks. It is now seeing more than 4,000 daily cases of the virus.
Israel earned praise for its initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak, moving quickly to seal the country's borders and appearing to bring infections under control. It has since been criticized for opening businesses and schools too quickly and allowing the virus to spread unchecked.
Much of that criticism has been aimed at Netanyahu, who has faced a public outcry over his handling of the crisis and has seen thousands of protesters descend on his Jerusalem residence every week. While lauded for his decisive response following the spring outbreak, Netanyahu appeared distracted by politics and personal matters, including his trial for corruption allegations, as infections rose over the summer.
'We will get through this'
At the press conference Sunday announcing the lockdown, Netanyahu defended his response, saying Israel's economy had emerged from the first lockdown in a better state than many other developed nations and that while cases were high, the country's coronavirus mortality numbers were lower than other countries with similar outbreaks.
"For the past six months, the coronavirus pandemic has been striking at the world. Nearly 30 million people have been infected and close to a million have died," a somber Netanyahu said. "We were the first in the world to understand the magnitude of the threat. Thanks to our decisions, the number of people infected in Israel is low.
Since we were the first to shutter the economy, we could be among the first to reopen it. We have given grants to you, members of the public, and our economy is in a better position than other world economies because we opened it early. We are working tirelessly for you.
"When we resumed [economic activity] I said this would be like an accordion – the economy will be open when morbidity is low and under lockdown when it's high. Every country that resumed [economic activity] has seen a spike in morbidity and reintroduced restrictions," he explained.
Last Thursday, he continued, "Health officials sounded the alarm, saying that morbidity rates required taking serious steps. This is not about the number of beds or ventilators, but a question of burnout on the part of our wonderful medical teams. They also warn of a sudden spike in the number of patients in serious condition, which will result in a high death toll."
The second lockdown seeks to curb the virus racing across the country and break the infection chain, the prime minister stressed. "This is why today, the cabinet made the decision to impose a lockdown for three weeks. There is a possibility it would be extended, but right now it will be throughout the holidays.
"I promise you – we will get through this together. I urge everyone to adhere to the Health Ministry's directives on wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, avoiding mass gatherings, etc. These are the basic steps and if we fail to observe them another outbreak will happen. If we do, we'll be able to stop the virus. There will be a vaccine and I'm hopeful," he concluded.
'Government alone can't defeat the virus'
Coronavirus commissioner Ronni Gamzu said that the government was forced to announce the sweeping lockdown due to the soaring virus rates, adding that the ministers had no choice but to act after some hospital officials warned corona wards were nearing full capacity.
The government alone "won't defeat the coronavirus," he stated. "Only you, the public, can defeat the coronavirus. If we do this wisely, we can be done [with lockdowns] in two or three weeks," he said.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said that the public will be allowed to gather for prayer services during the High Holidays in a "very limited" fashion, but did not elaborate on the guidelines set for public prayer.
"For three months, I tried to avoid a lockdown. I did everything I could so that we could live alongside the coronavirus, with some rules here and there. But under the circumstances that have been created, we had no choice but to vote for a second lockdown," he said, hinting at the public's failure to follow his ministry's guidelines, which is believed to be a major contributor to the spike in infection rates.
The health minister said that if Israelis do not keep the rules, "all of this will have been for nothing. We need the public's cooperation."
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The country's power-sharing government, made up of two rival parties who joined forces in a stated aim to combat the virus, has also been chided for the new outbreak. The government has been accused of mismanagement, failing to properly address both the health and economic crises wrought by the virus and leading the country to its second lockdown.
Some government ministers meanwhile have pointed fingers at what they've called an undisciplined public, who they have accused of violating restrictions against public gatherings and mask-wearing.
