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COVID-19: Israel hit a record for the most people diagnosed with coronavirus in a single day, the Health Ministry reported. Some 1,504 people tested positive on Thursday, the same day that the government labeled a new group of cities as “restricted zones.” These include areas of Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Beitar Illit, Kiryat Malachi, Lod and Ramle.
The Health Ministry on Friday announced significant changes to its quarantine and contact tracing policies for the coronavirus, which are expected to greatly reduce the number of people required to self-isolate at any given time.
Israel is the country with the third-highest daily coronavirus infection rate in comparison to European counties, according to a World Health Organization published on Friday. WHO data shows that Russia is the country with the highest daily number of diagnosed cases, with 6,635 new cases confirmed on Friday morning. It is followed by Kazakhstan with 1,726 new cases and Israel with 1,360 new cases as of Friday morning.
Thousands of people descended on Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to protest against the Israeli government’s handling of the economic crisis caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and what they say is insufficient aid offered to small business owners and professionals in the hard-hit entertainment and hospitality industries. Organizers said some 10,000 people were at the demonstration.
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A gas explosion reportedly rocked a residential building in Tehran on Saturday, injuring a resident. The damage was caused when several gas cylinders in the building’s basement exploded. The incident came amid a series of mysterious blasts in Iran recently, including one last week that caused extensive damage to a uranium enrichment facility used for centrifuge production at the Natanz nuclear site.
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A senior commander of Hamas’s military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has reportedly fled the Gaza Strip amid suspicions that he had been collaborating with Israel, Palestinian sources said on Saturday. The man, who headed Hamas’s commando frogman unit, fled the Strip aboard an IDF boat, the sources told the Palestinian news website Amad.
They said that the senior Hamas commander took with him a laptop containing “dangerous classified information” about the group’s frogman unit, as well as sums of money and eavesdropping devices that were in his possession.
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Antisemitism Watch: Political extremism is on the rise in Germany across the political spectrum, increasing the threat of racism and antisemitism in the country, a new government report has found.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has stated that his country will never approve reparations for heirless Jewish assets lost during the Holocaust. “There won’t be any damages paid for heirless property,” Duda told Poland’s state television after the topic has come up ahead of the upcoming nation’s election.
NFL football star DeSean Jackson has accepted an invitation by Holocaust survivor Edward Mosberg to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp following controversy over posting a quote by Adolf Hitler on Instagram.
VIDEO: When Success Is “Segregation”
Recommended Reading
- Jews must not be sacrificial canaries in the battle against antisemitism (Adam Milstein)
- Israel and the innate bias of the UN Security Council (Paul Shindman)
- The 3rd wave of antisemitism is upon us (Fiamma Nirenstein)
- Jews aren’t indigenous to Israel? According to whom? (Jonathan S. Tobin)
- Hatikvah: The lyrics, meaning and history of Israel’s national anthem (Pesach Benson)
