Israel tightens restrictions on W. Bank amid outbreak
As the number of individuals diagnosed with the novel coronavirus continues to rise, Israel tightened restrictions on Palestinians entering the country to work, banning all except those in essential sectors.
Following a security assessment, only Palestinians who work in healthcare, agriculture and construction would be allowed entry into Israel, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday morning.
However, those who enter would not be allowed to travel back to the West Bank and will need to remain in Israel for the next few months, with the employer providing lodging, he said.
Last week, Bennett ordered the IDF and the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories to impose a full closure on Bethlehem in coordination with the Palestinian Authority. It is still in effect.
Two Palestinians who returned to the West Bank from abroad have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, the PA government announced Tuesday.
The total number of confirmed cases in PA-controlled areas was 41 by mid-Tuesday.
One of the new patients returned from Germany by way of the Allenby Bridge.
The second is a student from Ramallah who was also diagnosed after he returned from abroad, PA government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem said.
Tests conducted on 30 people who came in contact with a Palestinian from Tulkarm, who returned from Poland and was diagnosed with the disease on Monday, showed they had not contracted the virus, he said.
Fourteen Palestinians from Hebron who work in an Israeli factory have also tested negative for the coronavirus, Milhem said.
A total of 2,885 samples have been tested since the coronavirus outbreak in the West Bank, he said.
Thirty-eight confirmed cases of the virus are in the Bethlehem area, which remains under lockdown for the second week.
All Palestinian travelers arriving by way of the Allenby Bridge would be required to remain in home isolation for 14 days as a precautionary measure to stem the virus, PA Minister of Health Mai Alkaila announced.
PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Tuesday said his government had issued a three-day ultimatum to Palestinian workers in Israel to arrange places for staying overnight in their workplaces in coordination with their employers.
During a meeting of the Palestinian National Emergency Committee to Face the Outbreak of the Coronavirus, he said movement between PA-controlled territories and Israel will be banned after the three-day deadline.
Shtayyeh called on Palestinians working in Israeli settlements not to go to work on the pretext that several coronavirus cases have been detected among settlers.
He said Israel is “fully responsible” for the health of Arab residents of Jerusalem and urged the Israeli authorities to take all safety measures to protect them.
The Palestinians were coordinating with Egypt and Jordan to close all border crossings in both directions, except for commerce and humanitarian cases, Shtayyeh said.
In the Gaza Strip, where no cases of coronavirus have been registered so far, 95% of restaurants and hotels have been closed down, the Chamber of Commerce in the Hamasruled coastal enclave said.
The closure of the Erez border crossing has prevented 3,500 Gazans from working in Israel, it said.
Fifty-one Palestinians were placed in quarantine in a school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip upon their return from abroad.
In an effort to prevent the spread of the virus in the Gaza Strip, Hamas announced it would release prisoners who had spent two-thirds of their prison terms. The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry did not say how many inmates would be released. The inmates would be given “home leave” for one week, it said, adding that the decision related only to those convicted of minor offenses.