After hours of discussions, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday unveiled new measures to strengthen the containment in force for nearly a week.

Objective: to curb the contamination of Covid-19 at all costs.

Israel is the country with the highest rate of infection in the past two weeks, with an increase in severe cases and hospitals overwhelmed to the point of no longer accepting new patients.  

From Friday at 2 p.m., synagogues will be closed, except for Yom Kippur (celebrated Sunday evening and Monday), only the work sectors deemed "essential" will be able to continue to exercise and outdoor demonstrations and prayers will be limited to 20 people. and less than 1 kilometer from the home.

These measures were adopted on first reading Thursday evening by the Israeli Parliament (Knesset).

Israel also imposed new restrictions on international flights on Friday.

Transport Minister Miri Regev has indicated that Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion International Airport will remain open but that only passengers who have bought a plane ticket before 2 p.m. local time on Friday, and who test negative for Covid -19 will be able to go abroad.

Netanyahu under fire from critics 

"Saving lives is our priority, we are living at a time of national crisis," Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday evening in a press conference, justifying the decision to tighten restrictions.

"The State of Israel will overcome the epidemic and we will emerge stronger," added the Prime Minister.

But he did not know how to convince so far. 

These new restrictions have drawn criticism from all sides.

"The cause of this confinement is not the Covid-19, but the failed, negligent, hysterical and political management of the crisis by this government and the Prime Minister", accused, Thursday evening, the leader of the opposition [ centrist], Yaïr Lapid.

For its part, the radical right-wing Yamina party considered that the new measures were "destructive" to the economy and "unreasonable".  

"The criticisms extend well beyond the political and the opposition, specifies Gwendoline Debono, correspondent of France 24 in Israel. The administration is not tender either, and the Ministry of Finance considers that these measures are 'disastrous' for the economy ".

With the unemployment rate having already jumped in recent months, opposition parties have called for targeted aid to help the sectors of the economy most affected.

Critics of the Prime Minister believe that these measures are above all a means of defending his own political interests.

In civil society, it is estimated that this reconfinement is a maneuver to put an end to the demonstrations which have been taking place for more than three months in front of his home, gatherings of more than 20 people being now prohibited.

"Netanyahu is also accused of being much more gentle with the Orthodox community, while the contamination rates are the highest there. But it is also the keystone of the coalition which holds Benjamin Netanyahu", analyzes Gwendoline Debono. 

"We are heading for mass destruction"

Finally, it is the medical profession that has jumped.

"Health professionals believe that the Prime Minister takes decisions without taking into account the opinion of the medical profession", adds the correspondent of France 24. 

Yet a member of the team responsible for advising the government, Dr Hagai Levine denounces a "total confusion" in the management of the second wave of contamination, going so far as to compare the situation with the Yom Kippur war in 1973, during from which Israel had been taken by surprise by Arab armies.

“This time, there are no surprises […], we are heading for mass destruction,” he said.

"When the contamination rate decreased, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced to the population that they could go back to their normal occupations ... But a pandemic is like a marathon, you can run differently, but you cannot be stop running, "he said Thursday.

Hagai Levine calls on the government not to grant exemptions for Yom Kippur and to close synagogues, closed places, therefore more conducive to the spread of the virus, for this traditional day of gathering. 

With AFP

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