Israel will impose its coronavirus block on Friday afternoon and during the three-week Jewish holiday.
After hours of heated debate, Benjamin Netanyahu’s closet voted in favor of the drastic measure, which begins with the Jewish New Year on September 18 and ends with the Feast of Tabernacles on October 9.
“Now is the time to act,” Netanyahu said Sunday at a news convention in Jerusalem.
“The resolution passed by a majority of the cabinet votes,” he said. “I ask the citizens of Israel to settle for it as well. “
Ministers who voted for the move are concerned that the virus will spread differently in a giant circle of family gatherings for New Year’s dinner, mass prayers on The Day of Atonement, and snuggle up in small huts or stalls for tabernacle vacations.
Israel imposed its first blockade in mid-March, then eased the measure in May and has since experienced a momentary wave of coronavirus infections.
The rate of new cases topped 4,000 on Thursday for the first time since the pandemic hit the country in February.
Israelis will be forced to stay within 500 metres of their homes, Netanyahu said.
Schools will be closed and closed to customers.
Deliveries from supermarkets, pharmacies and places to eat will continue to work. Meetings will be limited to up to 10 others indoors and up to 20 people abroad.
“I know those steps are a great cost to all of us.
“These are the vacations we’re used to,” Netanyahu said, before heading to Washington to point out historic peace treaties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House on Tuesday.
A minister of an ultra-Orthodox coalition party resigned the angry previous Sunday over serious restrictions on prayer in synagogues on vacation and especially on the day of atonement, or Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Ministers opposing the blockade of the moment said it would be a “disaster” for the Israeli economy, with thousands more unemployed.
But Health Minister Yuli Edelstein of Netanyahu’s Likud said he “we have no choice. “
Voices also rose over the cabinet’s hot debate over whether weekly protests against Netanyahu deserve to be reduced.
To date, Israel has recorded 1,103 Covid-19-related deaths since the pandemic reached the country through 9. 2 million in February.
Of the approximately 154,000 instances in total, only approximately 115,000 have been fully recovered. Only more than 38,000 instances remain active, adding 139 on respirators.