The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they happened.
Iran’s health minister raises the nationwide death toll from the new coronavirus to 54 as the number of infected cases jumped overnight to 978 people.
Kianoush Jahanpour says new cases were confirmed in a number of cities, including Mashhad, which is home to Iran’s most important Shiite shrine that attracts pilgrims from across the region. Calls by Iran’s civilian government to clerics to close such shrines to to the public have not been uniformly followed.
The new figures represent 11 more deaths than reported yesterday and a whopping 385 new cases of infections. The new numbers, however, bring down the percentage of deaths to infections from 20% to around 5.5%.
Also today, Iran’s state broadcaster says all flights to the city of Rasht, the capital of nothern Gilan province, had been suspended. It gives no reasons why. The area of Gilan has some of Iran’s highest number of infections after the capital, Tehran, and the holy city of Qom, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in the country.
The virus, which originated in central China, has infected at least seven government officials in Iran, including one of its vice presidents and a senior health ministry official.
— AP
VATICAN — Pope Francis says today he is canceling a planned six-day spiritual retreat south of Rome after coming down with a “cold.”
“Unfortunately, a cold forced me not to take part this year,” the 83-year-old pontiff says after coughing a couple of times during his weekly appearance from a Vatican window in front of supporters.
— AFP
Blue and White chairmen Benny Gantz accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party of spreading fake reports about the coronavirus in a bid to suppress turnout on election day among Blue and White voters.
“It doesn’t bother the Likud propagandists to promote with all [their] strength the message that there’s the coronavirus in Givatayim. Did you ask yourselves why in fact Givatayim. Because it’s a stronghold of Blue and White,” Gantz writes on Twitter.
He adds: “This is exactly what Netanyahu intends to do tomorrow. He intends to disrupt election day, spread fake news in every area identified with Blue and White.”
Gantz was referring to reports that parts of a mall in the Tel Aviv suburb were closed due to suspicions someone was infected with the virus. In the last elections, 50.32 percent of votes cast in Givatayim went to Blue and White.
The Health Ministry said the man, who had returned to Israel from the US by way of Italy, reported not feeling well and that he was examined by medical personnel.
“There’s no hindrance to go to the mall in Givatayim and to continue [one’s] daily routine,” the ministry said in a statement. “The Health Ministry doesn’t put out statements on suspected [carriers of the virus] or those who were examined but only about verified cases.”
Gantz visited the mall after the reports.
הגענו לקניון גבעתיים, אין כאן קורונה. עם זאת, יש להקשיב להנחיות משרד הבריאות. לא ניתן לפייק ניוז להרתיע אותנו. pic.twitter.com/3F906bnIpn
— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) March 1, 2020
The Likud party dismisses Blue and White leader Benny Gantz’s claim that Prime Minister Netanyahu is planning to spread false reports about the coronavirus during tomorrow’s elections to suppress turnout among Blue and White supporters.
“Gantz is talking nonsense. A vaccine for the coronavirus will be found before [Gantz] finds a way to form a government without [Joint List MK] Ahmad Tibi. We’re a seat away from a victory that will prevent fourth elections or a dangerous government dependent on Tibi,” Likud writes on its Twitter account.
Culture Minister Miri Regev issues her first public response to a recording aired yesterday of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s aide Natan Eshel calling her an “animal” and saying that “non-Ashkenazi” voters were swayed by negative campaigning.
“It’s good that Natan Eshel understood the mistake he made. He called me and apologized from the bottom of his heart,” she writes on Twitter. “His words yesterday were improper and there is no place for them.”
Regev, who has frequently lashed out at left-wing figures for remarks seen as offensive to Mizrahi Jews, says Eshel “only represents himself” and rails at the Blue and White party over allegedly racist comments by some of its lawmakers.
“Blue and White is an elitist, racist party that is arrogant to Mizrahis and the periphery,” she says, adding that Mizrahi Jews have “an authentic representative in Likud.”
Syria’s official news agency says two of its warplane were shot down by Turkish forces inside northwest Syria, amid a military escalation there that’s led to growing direct clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces.
SANA says the jets were targeted over the Idlib region, and that the pilots ejected with parachutes and landed safely. These confrontations have added to soaring tensions between Turkey and Russia, which support opposing sides of the Syrian civil war.
— AP
Blue and White MK Gabi Ashkenazi says party leader Benny Gantz would have carried out a strike on Iran if ordered to do so when he was IDF chief of staff under Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Ashkenazi is pushing back on a recording aired by Israeli television last week in which Blue and White political adviser Israel Bachar can be heard saying Gantz didn’t have the courage to attack Iran and was a “threat” to Israel. Gantz fired Bachar after the recording aired.
Speaking with Army Radio, Ashkenazi says the job of the IDF chief of staff is to prepare military options for political leaders and that Gantz did not so in the case of Iran.
Ashkenazi, who preceded Gantz as IDF chief, accuses Netanyahu of evading responsibility by accusing the Blue and White leader of not having the guts to strike Iran, as any decision to do ultimately rests with Israel’s political leaders.
Israel’s ambassador to United Nations assails US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as an “ignorant fool,” two days before a key test for the Jewish frontrunner when 14 states will hold primaries on Super Tuesday.
“He is either a liar, an ignorant fool, or both,” Danon says at the annual AIPAC conference. “We don’t want Sanders at AIPAC. We don’t want him in Israel.”
Danon’s comments are in response to Sanders recently calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “reactionary racist.”
The Blue and White party petitions the Central Elections Committee to order news channels to broadcast Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayahu’s planned press conference on the coronavirus with a 10-minute delay due to the “high probability” that it will contain election campaign messages.
According to Israel’s election laws, news channels cannot broadcast direct election campaigning by candidates in the 60 days before elections.
Netanyahu is set to deliver a statement and press conference on the outbreak and spread of the virus in Israel shortly after 3 p.m.
According to the Blue and White petition, “there is a high probability that the address delivered by the prime minister as part of the press conference will constitute electoral campaigning.”
— Raoul Wootliff
Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, director-general of the Health Ministry, says Israelis should not have any hesitations about voting in tomorrow’s elections because of the coronavirus.
“The situation is under control. Everyone who was infected with the coronavirus, we know where they were infected and this is important that it’s safe to go vote. Don’t hesitate… go vote,” he says in a video statement.
Bar Siman-Tov says there will be 16 special polling stations across the country for the 5,630 people under home quarantine and that there are special instructions on voting for those people.
“For everyone else, I say, go vote, everything is safe and you don’t need to worry,” he says.
Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz lays into Prime Minister Netanyahu after the extremist Otzma Yehudit party said it had reached a deal with Likud to drop out of the elections, but the premier reneged on it.
“Netanyahu is prepared to to sell himself and the values of the Likud movement to racists. He already offered the Kahanists money and jobs and now he is offering them a real union, including a reserved spot [on Likud’s electoral slate] and an obligation to Kahanist ideology,” Gantz writes on his official Twitter account.
Likud neither confirmed nor denied the details of the agreement as outlined by Otzma Yehudit, instead calling on leader Itamar Ben-Gvir to “show responsibility” and quit the race in order “to not burn votes and harm the right-wing victory.”
PARIS — The spreading coronavirus epidemic shuts down France’s Louvre Museum today, with workers who guard its trove of art works fearful of being contaminated by the museum’s flow of visitors from around the world.
“We are very worried because we have visitors from everywhere,” says Andre Sacristin, a Louvre employee and union representative for its staffers.
“The risk is very, very, very great,” he says in a phone interview. While there are no known virus infections among the museum’s 2,300 workers, “it’s only a question of time,” he says.
A short statement from the Louvre says a staff meeting about virus prevention efforts stopped the museum from opening as scheduled this morning. Would-be visitors were still waiting to get inside this afternoon.
— AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Teams taking part in the abandoned UAE Tour begin leaving Abu Dhabi today after being quarantined amid a coronavirus scare.
Israel’s Start-Up Nation team says it left with “clean health bill and all” after the three-day drama.
— AFP
After a 3 day #coronavirus ordeal – we are all on our flights back home from the #UAEtour . Clean health bill and all.
With all the planet that seem like turning upside down these days – we consider ourselves lucky. Next: pic.twitter.com/rXnAffOPsj— Israel Start-Up Nation / Israel Cycling Academy (@YallaIsraelSUN) March 1, 2020
An EasyJet plane coming from Berlin makes an emergency landing at Ben Gurion Airport after smoke emerged from the pilot’s cabin.
The plane, which is reportedly carrying 167 passengers, lands safely at the airport.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri claims Jews in Israel may be scared to wear a kippah if a left-leaning government is formed after tomorrow’s elections.
“A left-wing government is likely to be formed here with the support of [Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor] Liberman and the Joint List. If this government is formed, I’m worried that people will be scared to walk in the street with a kippah and will need to walk with a cap like in Europe,” Deri is quoted saying by Channel 13 news during his grandson’s bris.
Deri heads the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, part of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing and religious parties.
LONDON — British health authorities announce 12 more confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, bringing the country’s overall tally to 35.
The government’s chief medical officer, Prof. Chris Whitty, says one of the new patients “had no relevant travel and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad.”
Whitty says medical workers were still investigating the cause of that one infection.
Three of the new COVID-19 patients are contacts of an existing patient. Of the remaining eight new cases, six infected people recently traveled from Italy and two had arrived from Iran, both countries hard hit by the coronavirus that emerged late last year in central China.
— AP
Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz addresses the annual AIPAC conference, with Israel’s elections tomorrow featuring heavily in his speech.
“I will fight to keep Israel a country we can be proud of. I will ensure that Israel remains secure, Jewish and democratic. I will form a government only with partners who share our vision and keep extremists out of our Knesset,” he says.
Gantz appears to be referring to the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, who Prime Minister Netanyahu had sought to include in an union of national-religious parties allied with his Likud. AIPAC last year said it boycotts members of Otzma Yehudit, which it called a “reprehensive and racist party.”
The Blue and White chief, who speaks by video feed, also vows to revive plans for an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall if he becomes prime minister. The plan, which was supported by many Jewish groups in the US, was frozen by Netanyahu following pressure from his religious allies.
“I want an Israel the entire Jewish people is proud of,” Gantz says. “When I’ll be prime minister, everyone will have a place at the Western Wall. Everyone.”
Gantz also promises to work closely with both Republicans and Democrats if he forms the next government, amid growing criticism of Israel and Netanyahu by many Democrats.
“Under my leadership. Israel will never become a partisan issue [in the United States]. I will work effectively with both sides of the aisle,” he says.
Unnamed associates Prime Minister Netanyahu are quoted by Hebrew media saying the comments by Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, about Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders were not coordinated with the premier.
Danon told the annual AIPAC conference today that Sanders is an “ignorant fool” for recently calling Netanyahu a “reactionary racist.”
Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, has still not made a final decision on whether to drop out of the elections, his spokesperson says.
The spokesperson adds that Ben Gvir will hold a press conference at 7:30 p.m., fueling speculation he could announce he’s quitting the race.
The announcement comes as reports say Otzma Yehudit is in talks with United Torah Judaism on a deal that could see Ben Gvir drop out and throw his support behind the ultra-Orthodox party.
Ben Gvir earlier today said he had reached a deal with Likud to quit, but Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been calling for Otzma Yehudit to drop out, reneged on the deal.
Netanyahu, who previously tried to include Otzma Yehudit in an alliance of national-religious parties, has repeatedly claimed that votes for the extremist party will be wasted as it will not pick up sufficient support to enter the Knesset, thus hurting his right-wing bloc.
BEIRUT — Thousands of mourners throng the coffins of five fighters from the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, whose funeral is held today in southern Beirut after they were killed in neighboring Syria’s northwestern Idlib region.
The fighters are among at least eight Hezbollah members who died Friday in Turkish attacks amid fierce fighting between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and Turkish troops and allied militiamen. The deaths marked the highest for Hezbollah in Syria in years.
Hezbollah sent thousands of its battle-hardened fighters into Syria in 2012, a year after the country’s conflict began. They’ve been helping Assad’s forces win major battles against rebels, and along with Russian air power have turned the tide of the war. Over the past two years, as the security situation stabilized in many areas, Hezbollah withdrew much of its forces, leaving only a few hundred fighters in several areas across the war-torn country.
The funeral is held in Beirut’s southern district of Ghobeiri. A crowd of a few thousand people — relatives and supporters — walk behind five coffins wrapped in yellow Hezbollah flags amid cries of “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “God is great.”
Heavy gunfire rings out as supporters fire in the air, a traditional sign of mourning. At least five people are seen being taken on stretchers after they fainted, apparently overwhelmed by emotion.
— Agencies
VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign says that it raised more than $46.5 million in February, a show of financial strength after the Vermont senator finished a distant second behind Joe Biden in South Carolina’s primary.
Fellow progressive Elizabeth Warren announces collecting a respectable $29 million last month, as she copes with a weaker South Carolina showing. But both do better than that state’s winner. Biden says on CNN that he’d raised about $17 million since the start of February — including a $5 million boost in the last 24 hours that coincided with his first win of the primary.
Sanders’ team says it’s making television ad buys in nine more states: Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Washington, which vote on March 10, and Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, which vote a week later. The campaign says it is “currently on the air in 12 out of the 14 states” that are voting on Super Tuesday, in two days.
The eye-popping haul follows an already impressive January that raised more than $25 million. Sanders’ campaign immediately said it would use the January funds to purchase $5.5 million in television and digital advertising in 10 Super Tuesday states.
— AP
MOSCOW — Russia’s state-owned Sputnik news agency says four of its journalists in Turkey have been released after questioning in connection with attacks on some of the journalists’ residences.
Sputnik, which operates news websites in about 30 languages, says angry mobs tried to break into the apartments of three staffers in the Turkish capital of Ankara last night, threatening violence and demanding they stop their work. Sputnik says the assailants accused the journalists, who are Turkish citizens, of being Russian spies.
Sputnik says the journalists went to the police to report the attacks and the agency lost contact with them. Later, it says, investigators raided Sputnik’s office and detained the bureau’s editor-in-chief.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the matter with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu today. Sputnik say the journalists were released hours later.
Turkish authorities have not commented on the matter.
— AP
The Israel Police announces it setting up a “war room” for tomorrow’s elections to combat the spread of false information that could effect voting.
A police spokeswoman says officers are ready to handle “rumors and disinformation” that could influence the voting process.
The spokeswoman says police are also prepared to deal with fake information about the coronavirus being spread.
MILAN — Italian authorities announce that the number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Italy has risen 40 percent to 1,576 in 24 hours, while another five infected people have died.
That brings the number of people infected with the virus in Italy to 34 since cases of the virus exploded February 21.
Health authorities say the increase is expected, since it takes as much as two weeks for the containment measures to take effect, and because Italy has a large number of elderly people.
— AP
Israeli soldiers begin voting on bases across the country, a day before polls open, the military says.
Troops are permitted to cast their ballots early if they are due to be on assignment or otherwise deployed during regular voting hours.
— Judah Ari Gross
Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, says his party will not drop out of tomorrow’s elections amid pressure to do so from Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing religious allies.
“We came to politics to change, to present an alternative,” Ben Gvir says at a press conference in Jerusalem. “We’re here to stay.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with a rabbi who had taped one of the aides to the premier’s centrist rival, Benny Gantz, disparaging the Blue and White leader, prior to the tape’s release, Channel 12 news reports.
The network releases a recording from last Wednesday, a day before the tape of Israel Bachar was released, of Netanyahu talking with Rabbi Guy Havura and others.
In the recording, a voice said to be the rabbi’s and another speaker can be heard promising Netanyahu that the recording of Bachar must be published without his voice altered.
Netanyahu can be heard responding, though his answer is not comprehensible.
The prime minister has denied discussing the recording with Havura before it was published.
In the tape from last week, Bachar can be heard saying Gantz does not have the guts to attack Iran and is a “threat” to Israel. Gantz fired Bachar after the recording’s release and accused Netanyahu’s Likud party of using “mafia” tactics.
Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz responds to a recording, aired by Channel 12 news this evening, that demonstrates that Prime Minister Netanyahu had discussed a tape of one of Gantz’s aides talking with the rabbi who recorded it.
“Netanyahu, you continue to lie to the citizens of Israel. The recordings are part of an ongoing, organized and despicable campaign of hate that is sticking a knife in the heart of Israeli society,” Gantz writes on Twitter.
In a separate statement, Blue and White accuses Netanyahu of using “mafia tactics” and says he has no “red lines.”
A petition is filed with the Central Elections Committee alleging that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party shared polling data in violation of Israeli law.
The petition, filed by attorney Schahar Ben-Meir, alleges that a Likud voice message that was sent out saying that polls show Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc would currently win 59.7 Knesset seats — violates a law barring the publication of polling data after the Friday before election day.
Palestinian media reports that terrorists in the southern Gaza Strip fired a rocket toward Israel, which appears to have landed short of the border, within the enclave.
The Israel Defense Forces says it is looking into the matter.
— Judah Ari Gross
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders responds to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon telling AIPAC today that Sanders is an “ignorant fool” for calling Prime Minister Netanyahu a racist.
In an interview with the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Sanders is asked about the comment and whether he believed his criticism of AIPAC, which he recently says provides a platform to “bigotry,” would hurt him politically.
“Yeah, I do. I mean, they have a lot of money. They have a lot of power. Look, I’m Jewish and I’m very proud of my Jewish heritage… I am not in- anti-Israel,” he says.
Sanders says that while he is committed to ensuring “the independence and the security and the freedom of the Israeli people,” he believes the US needs a foreign policy “that not only protects Israel, but deals with the suffering of the Palestinian people as well.”
