Israelis, Palestinians meet on Ebola threat

As concerns over Ebola grow across the world, Israel and the Palestinian Authority are examining ways of working together to protect both of their populations.

Representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the World Health Organization met Saturday evening to discuss how to cooperate to prevent the spread of the disease, Arutz Sheva reported.

Gen. Yoav Mordechai, Coordinator for Government Activities in the Terroritories, and Prof. Alex Leventhal from the Health Ministry represented Israel at the meeting.

A source at the meeting said that Leventhal suggested cooperation between Israel, Palestinian, and Jordanian doctors through the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance, which coordinates between the three parties’ health ministries.

On Friday, Israel began warning passengers returning from certain Ebola-infected countries that they are at risk and need to get themselves checked, a spokeswoman for the Israel Airports Authority told The Times of Israel.

The authority has been instructed to place signs to this effect and to hand out flyers that “clearly state” that arriving passengers from affected countries are at risk from the disease. The authority is not performing any checks itself, and nor is it filtering out or singling out any passengers for special treatment, she said.

Liberia has been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak, recording more than 2,200 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. The total death toll as of Wednesday was 3,865, with most other deaths in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The move to warn arriving passengers comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday convened a discussion on Israel’s preparedness for dealing with the Ebola virus. Among those participating were Health Minister Yael German, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz and Deputy Interior Minister Fania Kirshenbaum – as well as representatives of the Israel Police, Airports Authority and the Foreign Ministry.

A statement released after the meeting said that “it was decided to increase efforts to locate persons entering Israel from those countries.”

While the Defense Ministry rejected a US request earlier in the month to establish field hospitals in the Ebola-stricken western African countries, the Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that it was dispatching three teams — in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) — to bordering African nations at risk of infection.

And IsraAID, an Israel-based international relief group with standing missions in South Sudan, Philippines, and tsunami-struck Japan, was on the ground in Sierra Leone this week as part of a national task force offering support to both health workers and the general population.

Raphael Ahren and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.