Israel’s Health Ministry published the number of new cases of the Coronavirus that were reported on Friday and found that 6,004 people tested positive for the virus. The percentage of positive tests that came back over the course of the day was 6.1 percent of the 98,000 tests that were conducted. On Shabbos, some 2,154 people tested positive for the virus. Israel currently has 739 patients in serious condition with the disease and 177 of them are connected to ventilators. The total number of fatalities in Israel due to the virus since it began is 3,384. 30 of them died yesterday and another 7 today.

21 residents in a senior’s home in Bat Yam tested positive for the virus. All of the residents were vaccinated in the past few days against the virus, but these 21 did not have enough time yet to build up antibodies against the virus. Tests were given to the other 150 residents of the home. Mayor Tzvika Brot held an appraisal meeting following the outbreak and instructed that the owners of the residence be notified.

25 prisoners in the Ketziot prison located near the Israeli border with Egypt, tested positive for the virus. The prisoners did not have any symptoms and they are in good health. The Israeli prison service announced that the prisoners were placed in quarantine in accordance with the guidelines of the Health Ministry and that all of the prisoners in that wing have been tested since the outbreak.

Carmel Shama HaCohen, the Mayor of Ramat Gan, has called upon residents to keep their children home from school tomorrow due to the outbreak of the virus. In his statement, the Mayor said that his own daughter would be staying home as well.

Tzvika Brut went one step further and canceled all schools in Bat Yam from grades 5 – 10 due to the outbreak, even though Bat Yam is only considered a “Yellow” city according to the epidemiological scale of infection. Brut said that the parents association of the city school board agreed with the decision.

Due to the outbreak of Corona in a number of towns in the southern Golan Heights, schools will be closed in a number of towns including Chispin, Nov, and Avnei Eitan. Social programs will be held remotely in those towns as well as in the towns of Keshet, Yonatan, Alonei HaBashan, and Ramat HaMagshimim. In recent days, the southern Golan Heights has seen an outbreak of more than 100 people with the disease and more than 1,000 in isolation.

Israel’s Health Minister Yuli Edelstein is planning to bring a proposal to the government that would see a full lockdown on the entire country, including the education system for a period of two weeks.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to hold a meeting that would discuss a full lockdown starting next week that would be short, that would bring the infection rate down more quickly and thus allow for the economy to reopen more quickly.

More than 90,000 live ammunition bullets were stolen from ammunition depots in the IDF reserve training base of Tze’elim in the south. The IDF military police are investigating a break-in that was discovered in one of the bases ammunition depots.

The Likud Central Committee ratified Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s request that there be no primaries for the party ahead of the upcoming election and that he be allowed to reserve six seats on the party’s election list for people who he sees fit to put in the list.

Attorney Mishal Diamant, who serves as one of the Board Members of the Non-profit organization for the memory of the Lechi Fighters, and who is the grand-daughter of Israel’s Seventh Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir, has joined Gideon Sa’ar’s political list, A New Hope. Diamant will be leaving the Likud party in order to join ranks with Sa’ar whom she said “I fully believe that Sa’ar has principals, is honest, and has ideologies.”

Police began using skunk water to attempt to disperse the protest against police brutality over the death of Ahuvya Sandak. Thus far, seven police officers have been injured from stones that were thrown by the protesters, and twenty protesters have been arrested with charges of disturbing the peace. Protesters flipped over a police cruiser.

More than 1,000 protesters against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu marched from the String Bridge at Jerusalem’s entrance to Paris Square near the Prime Minister’s Residence in the capital.

3 men were killed, and a 22-year-old man was seriously injured in a shooting incident that took place after violence broke out in Kfar Akrav in east Jerusalem. The injured were brought to the Kalandia crossing and from there were brought to Hadassah Har HaTzofim hospital. One man was pronounced dead in the hospital. Additional injured people were taken to a hospital in Ramallah, where the other two men were pronounced dead. The cause of the violence was a feud between families in the village. Due to the unique nature of the incident, Palestinian police forces will be allowed to enter the village, which is officially under Israeli control, in an effort to restore order.

A 35-year-old motorcycle rider was pronounced dead in Sheba Hospital in Tel HaShomer after he was struck by a car yesterday in Givatayim.

A 54-year-old motorcyclist was killed in a self-induced accident near the Nes Tziona interchange on Highway 431. United Hatzalah volunteers and Magen David Adom ambulance teams treated the man for his injuries but were forced to pronounce his death at the scene.

A motorcyclist in his 20s was arrested under the suspicion of beating a 70-year-old man in Haifa. The older man supposedly yelled at the younger man for his dangerous driving. The motorcyclist is suspected of having struck the older man with his helmet, injuring him.

A seven-year-old boy was seriously injured on Barnea Street in Eilat after he was struck by a car. United Hatzalah volunteers and Magen David Adom ambulance teams treated him for his injuries and transported him to Yoseftal Medical Center for further care.

A man in his 20s was seriously injured after he was struck by a car on Highway 90 near the Natziv Junction close to Beit Shean. He was treated at the scene by United Hatzalah volunteers and Magen David Adom ambulance teams and then airlifted to Rambam Hospital in Haifa while he was still unconscious.

A man in his 60s was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident in Park HaCarmel near the Damun Interchange. He was evacuated by search and rescue units and brought to Rambam Hospital for care.

IDF soldiers arrested a suspect who crossed the border from Gaza into Israel. The suspect was not carrying a weapon and was interrogated by security forces.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)