Israel marks grim milestone of 5,000 deaths ■ Netanyahu warns of 'massive and rapid spread' of British coronavirus variant ■ Palestinians start vaccination campaign ■ Israel expected to sign tourism pact
11:59 A.M. Israel delivers 2,000 COVID vaccines to Palestinian Authority
Israel delivered 2,000 coronavirus vaccines to the West Bank on Monday, the first batch of 5,000 inoculations intended for Palestinian medical staff.
The decision to dispatch vaccines to the Palestinian Authority came after a recommendation from the Defense Ministry and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
The Moderna vaccines were delivered via the Beitunia crossing in the West Bank.
(Yaniv Kubovich)
9:50 A.M. Experts warn against uncontrolled exit from third COVID-19 lockdown
A team of experts who advised the National Security Council at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis is warning that an uncontrolled exit from the third lockdown could lead to a severe outbreak of the virus in Israel.
It is known as the Holocaust. Jews call it the “
Shoah” – an ancient word for disaster” or “catastrophe. The mass, industrialized murder of European Jewry, the culmination of centuries of hate in an explosion of unimaginable brutality, left nearly six million Jews dead. Not killed in battle or even casualties of war but put to death, often in factories built expressly for murder.
Since the gruesome discoveries of just how Nazi Germany set about eradicating Europe s Jews, aided and abetted by anti-Semitic or just cowed populations, mankind has struggled to understand what happened. And to answer the ultimate question – could it happen again? The subject is exhaustively covered in media, literature – and cinema, too, where some set out to document, some to investigate and some even, finally, to riff. Directors wonder, dabble in alternate realities and ask: What if? And then what if?
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Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip await vaccines, which could take at least a few more months to get to a big enough part of society. Infection rates in both territories, however, are being kept relatively low.
Israel currently has 74,323 active cases; 4,501 people have died. In the West Bank, there are 4,355 active cases and 1,464 deaths, and in Gaza 4,722 active cases and 513 deaths.
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9:58 P.M. 900 Holocaust survivors died of COVID-19 in Israel last year
The coronavirus pandemic claimed the lives of 900 Holocaust survivors in Israel in 2020, with a total of 5,300 survivors testing positive for COVID-19, statistics released by Israel’s Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority on Tuesday showed.