Two and a half million Israeli children began school Friday morning following two months of summer vacation during which intense negotiations took place to avert a planned strike by the Secondary School Teachers' Association during the opening of the school year.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

The strike was called off last minute after the association, which represents high school teachers, reached an agreement with the Education and Finance ministries on Thursday evening.

Video: Israel kicks off 2023-2024 school year / Credit: Yoni Rikner

Under the agreement, the educators' salaries will be upped by 2,000 shekels ($525) with an extra 1.35% into a special pension fund. The raises, however, will be distributed gradually over the next four years, with an initial increase of NIS 800 ($210).

Teachers will also add one hour of classroom lecturing a week, a move officials hope will help tackle the dire shortage of educational staff. According to estimates, Israel is short of several thousand teachers, impacting the standard of education.

The agreement also prevents teachers from going on a strike over salary disputes for at least six and a half years.
"School is on tomorrow, high schoolers," Education Minister Yoav Kisch, the main driving force behind the negotiations, said in celebration.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Almog Elementary School in Ma'ale Adumim in honor of the first school day.

"Each and every one of you is special and equal to the other," he told a class of first-graders. "Look at each other, be friends of one another, and be kind to one another. Study well and listen to your teachers."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post 2.5M Israeli children head back to school as teachers' strike averted at last minute appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Health experts were cautiously optimistic on Friday that the latest COVID wave, propelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, showed signs of receding.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The Health Ministry reported Friday morning that of the 133,423 Israelis screened for COVID on Thursday, 8,078 (6.71%) tested positive, in contrast to just a few days ago, when almost 10,000 Israelis tested positive for the virus.

On Friday, there were 76,323 active or symptomatic cases in the country, and 1,086 Israelis were hospitalized. The hospitalized included 191 in critical condition and 149 who were on ventilators.

Since the pandemic hit Israel early last ear, Israel has identified 1,031,810 confirmed cases, and its death toll stood at 6,943 on Friday.

Meanwhile, the start of the school year, scheduled for Sept. 1, continued to be clouded by the resurgence of the coronavirus. On Sunday, the Coronavirus Cabinet said that the school year would begin on Sept. 1, as scheduled, however, it is expected to convene again on Sunday – after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett returns from Washington – to discuss the controversial decision.

"We will reassess the opening of the school year in the next few days," Head of the Public Health Services Headquarters at the ministry Ilana Gens said. "We will try our utmost to go ahead with the opening as planned."

Optimism was also expressed by experts from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who advise the government on COVID, who published an analysis this week – based on COVID data gathered up until Aug. 28 – saying that while some disruptions to the beginning of the school year could be expected, the wave was unlikely to spike again.

Researchers said that the booster shot campaign had already brought down the number of seriously ill patents, and estimated that the infection rate would continue to decline.

Assuming all COVID restrictions remain in place and Israelis continue to get vaccinated, experts estimate the reproduction rate – which relates to the number of people each confirmed carrier infects – will go down to 0.85 by Rosh Hashanah, which starts on Monday, Sept. 6. A reproduction rate under 1 means an outbreak is subsiding.

"The current infection wave has been reined in thanks to the booster campaign and mild restrictions," they noted.

Since the launch of the booster campaign, 1,860,227 Israelis have received a third COVID jab.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Delta wave showing signs of subsiding, but start of school year still in question appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Edelstein is also expected to support Gamzu's recommendation to keep schools in red communities closed for now, although the school year officially began nationwide on Tuesday.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The Corona cabinet will discuss additional limitations for red cities, towns, and local authorities, as well as the possibility of declaring a nationwide lockdown for the High Holidays, which begin on Friday, Sept. 18. However, no final decision on holiday policy will be made until Sept. 10.

"We made a difficult decision to start the school year in Israel, despite the spiraling virus numbers," Edelstein said during a visit to schools in Efrat.

Edelstein discussed the decision not to start the school year in red communities and said he "understood" the difficulty the decision posed for parents, teachers, and children.

"You need to understand, by making the decision right before the start of the year we were able to compile an up-to-date list of [red] cities and towns," the health minister explained.

Hours after the Corona cabinet added the Haredi towns Betar Illit, Rechasim, Emmanuel, as well as the city of Tiberias, which is home to a large Haredi population, to the list of red cities and issued orders for schools there to remain closed, residents were fuming.

Betar Illit decided to ignore the Corona cabinet's decision and open its schools, despite the risk. The municipality said that it had closed them again, but residents noted that the city had closed down only some of its schools.

"Most of the schools were open. Others closed after the police arrived and sent the students homes. It was terrible to see first-graders returning home, upset," one resident said.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

Betar Illit Mayor Meir Rubenstein sent a letter of outrage to the Health ministry, demanding that the city be re-classified as orange.

Bnei Brak, which was recently designated red after having been downgraded to orange, opened its schools on Tuesday, but only after taking special steps in coordination with Maj. Gen. (res.) Roni Numa, who has been assigned to handle the city's efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus there.

"We took our fate in our hands and spent millions of shekels to fight the virus," said city treasurer Arik Adler, who for the last six months has also served as head of the coronavirus headquarters of Bnei Brak.

Bnei Brak has taken the unprecedented step of testing all the 700 nursery school teachers and aides who work there to ensure that none of them are positive for coronavirus. The city also called in all its elementary school principals and directors of Talmud Torah institutions and reached agreements with them on strict health procedures.

"Every day, we visit five Talmud Torahs to make sure they are adhering to the conditions, and anyone who doesn't come up to par will see the police after we leave. Show me another city that conducts independent visits to schools," Adler said.

Bnei Brak also plans to test all its seminary students, some 4,000 18 and 19-year-old girls. Meanwhile, 6,000 yeshiva students in Bnei Brak have already been tested, and work is ongoing.

The post Health Minister expected to back lockdown in 'red' cities appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Speaking Sunday at a ceremony opening the new school year in the Samaria community of Elkana, Netanyahu said there "will be no more displacements" and all the communities will be "part of the State of Israel."

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"With God's help we will extend Jewish sovereignty to all the settlements as part of the [biblical] land of Israel, as part of the State of Israel," he said.

"This is our land," Netanyahu said in his speech. "We will build another Elkana and another Elkana and another Elkana. We will not uproot anyone here."

Such a move would be a sharp departure from long-standing Israeli government policy. Netanyahu made a similar pledge to begin annexing parts of Judea and Samaria in an interview with i24News and Israel Hayom on the eve of the first round of elections held in April this year but did not act on it.

With just over two weeks to go to the do-over election, Netanyahu looks to be seeking to shore up his right-wing base again.

The post Netanyahu reaffirms pledge to annex parts of Judea and Samaria appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.