JERUSALEM (AP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel will close its international airport to near flights as the government scrambles to contain a furious outbreak of the coronavirus.
The emergence of highly contagious variants of the coronavirus, coupled with poor security enforcement in ultra-Orthodox communities, has contributed to one of the world’s highest infection rates. It has also threatened to undermine Israel’s highly successful campaign to vaccinate its population against the virus.
At the end of Sunday, the Israeli cabinet approved what Netanyahu said would be tightly cut off inbound and outbound air traffic. The government said it would make exceptions for a small number of humanitarian cases, such as funerals and medical patients, and cargo flights.
“We are hermetically sealing the skies, with really rare exceptions, to prevent the entry of virus mutations and also to make sure that we make rapid progress with our vaccination campaign,” Netanyahu said.
The order must begin on Tuesday and remain in effect until January 31. Netanyahu’s office said the injunction still requires parliamentary legislation to be finalized.
During the pandemic, Israel has restricted access to the main international airport. But it has made exceptions for certain categories of people, including religious students and Israelis returning from abroad, while allowing Israeli tourists to fly to a handful of “green countries.” Due to these limited air travel, highly contagious variants of coronavirus from the UK and other places seem to be entering the country.
The Israeli Ministry of Health has recorded more than 595,000 cases of the virus and more than 4,361 deaths since the pandemic began. New cases of the disease continue to rise, even as the country launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns and is in the middle of its third nationwide lockdown.
Israeli authorities are struggling to enforce compliance in ultra-Orthodox communities. On Sunday, religious protesters clashed with police in several cities.
During the pandemic, many major ultra-Orthodox sects violated safety regulations, continue to open schools, pray in synagogues, and hold mass weddings at funerals. This has contributed to a disproportionately high infection rate, with the ultra-Orthodox community responsible for more than a third of coronavirus cases in Israel, despite just over 10% of the population.
In Jerusalem, police fired tear gas and rotten-smelling water to disperse a crowd of hundreds of ultra-Orthodox residents outside a reopened school. Protesters shouted ‘away, Nazis’ at agents filmed arresting participants.
In the coastal city of Ashdod, police are fighting dozens of protesters outside an ultra-Orthodox school. In the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, crowds of protesters chased journalists away. A police officer shot into the air while surrounded by a crowd of protesters.
Five police officers were injured in the disputes and at least four people were arrested, according to police.
With the country experiencing a furious coronavirus outbreak, the Israeli government last week extended the country’s third nationwide lockdown until the end of January.
Sunday’s clashes were the latest incident of heightened tensions over lockdown enforcement in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. On Friday, ultra-Orthodox Israelis attacked a police vehicle in the town of Bnei Brak, outside Tel Aviv. A crowd pelted the police car with stones and pierced the tires.