Michael Bachner is a news editor at The Times of Israel
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they unfolded.
Finance Minister Israel Katz and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, both from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, verbally clash over the potential reopening of street stores as a second phase in the easing of coronavirus restrictions takes effect.
Katz is calling for opening the stores as early as Tuesday, accusing the Health Ministry of an “unnecessary and baseless insistence” on delaying the move and claiming it is leading Israel to “anarchy and lack of regulation that will only increase morbidity.”
White Katz says infections are continuing to decline, Edelstein retorts and says the basic reproduction number is in fact on the rise, accusing Katz of “populism” and “leading us knowingly toward another lockdown and a financial, social and health disaster.”
“I understand the woes of the store owners,” Edelstein said. “We must help them and give them a safety net. However, we must remember that a rapid reopening now means another lockdown later. This complacency will eventually cause a death sentence for many businesses.”
The return to school in the Arab Israeli sector is being conducted amid signs of accelerating coronavirus infection in Arab communities, according to a report filed by the Arab Emergency Committee.
Around 6.6% of coronavirus tests in Arab towns and cities came back positive, three times the current national average, according to the Emergency Committee’s report.
Arab Israeli infections now account for 30% of the country’s overall number of active cases, even though Israel’s Arab citizens are only around one-fifth of the population.
— Aaron Boxerman
Settler leaders in Hebron are planning a special prayer at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow “for the success of President Trump’s reelection” at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, hours before the US election, the Har Hevron Local Council says in a statement.
Council head Yochai Damri says in the statement that the vote between Donald Trump and Joe Biden “will to a large extent impact the future of the State of Israel. We owe President Trump a debt of gratitude for his support of the State of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the settlements over the past four years.
“The polls are very close, and we are meeting at the Cave of the Patriarchs to pray for his success. During his term as President, the State of Israel and the settlements in particular have received unprecedented support.”
The statement adds that in attendance will be Marc Zell, the chairman of the Republican Party in Israel.
The government approves new regulations increasing the fines to be handed out for violations of coronavirus restrictions, but under pressure from the ultra-Orthodox parties says the matter will be discussed tomorrow by the so-called coronavirus cabinet before it is discussed by the Knesset.
Ministers from the Shas party either vote against the regulations or are absent from the vote. The leaders of the other Haredi party, United Torah Judaism — which doesn’t have ministers — have reiterated that they will vote against the move in both the Knesset committee and the plenum.
The ultra-Orthodox parties view the regulations as targeting their community since the majority of institutions violating the rules have been Haredi.
The new regulations, if approved, would increase the fine for opening a business or public space from NIS 5,000 ($1,467) to NIS 10,000 ($2,935).
The current NIS 5,000 ($1,467) fine for holding a party, conference, ceremony, festival, entertainment or art show in violation of the rules would be increased to NIS 20,000 ($5,870).
Similarly, the fine for defying the ban on opening education institutions (other than preschools and grades 1-4) will be upped from NIS 5,000 ($1,467) to NIS 20,000 ($5,870).
Coronavirus distancing rules were disregarded by many of the participants in today’s ceremony — attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Defense Minister Benny Gantz — marking the start of the human trials for an Israeli COVID-19 vaccine, Channel 12 reports.
The network publishes footage showing that during the ceremony at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, dozens of participants did not keep their distance from one another and didn’t adhere to the rule limiting outdoor gatherings to 20 people.
Only after a journalist uses his question to point out the violations do the organizers ask people to keep their distance and adhere to the rules.
One of the first rains in the country this fall happens in an unlikely place — near Eilat in the far south, normally the driest area of Israel, where it rarely rains.
Video footage from the Eilat mountains shows the desert hills and roads being splattered with strong rain and even hail.
Rain is also expected later today in much of Israel, for the first time this year.
The Israel Electric Corporation has announced that as a result, power disruptions are possible over the next few days because much preparatory work ahead of the winter was postponed this year due to the pandemic.
הייתם קטני אמונה, אבל הנה החורף הגיע.
גשם חזק בהרי אילת. צילום: אבי גדליה, רשות הטבע והגנים pic.twitter.com/erZkzJ6Ufd— רשות הטבע והגנים (@rashut_hateva) November 1, 2020
גשם חזק וברד בהרי אילת
צילום: אבי גדליה, רשות הטבע והגנים pic.twitter.com/iD1tHvmbfr— שרון וכסלר (@WexlerSharon) November 1, 2020
The United Arab Emirates state news agency says Abu Dhabi has given a final okay to a deal with Israel to exempt tourists from both countries from visa requirements when visiting each other.
“The Cabinet ratified a number of agreements between the government of the UAE and a number of friendly countries, including the ratification of the agreement between the UAE and the State of Israel regarding mutual exemption from entry visa requirements,” WAM says in a statement.
— with Aaron Boxerman
A helicopter carrying IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi has made an emergency landing at a military base in central Israel due to a motor malfunction, the military says.
The Israel Defense Forces says there were no injuries in the incident.
After landing at an undisclosed base in central Israel, Kohavi continued on his way by car.
“The matter will be investigated,” the IDF says.
— Judah Ari Gross
Iran has hit another single-day record for coronavirus deaths as the country grapples with a sharp spike in cases.
The Health Ministry reports that 434 people have died in 24 hours from the virus, bringing Iran’s death toll in the pandemic to more than 35,000.
The ministry says it has recorded 7,719 new confirmed infections since yesterday. Iran has reported more than 620,000 confirmed virus cases in all.
Most deaths have occurred in the capital, Tehran, which is also the most populated city in Iran. The head of the virology department at Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, Alireza Naji, has warned that Iran could reach 900 confirmed coronavirus deaths per day if more restrictions on movement and gatherings are not imposed.
Tehran’s City Council has proposed a two-week lockdown of the city. For the past three weeks, Iran has banned weddings and funeral gatherings and closed universities and schools, as well as libraries, mosques, cinemas, museums and beauty salons, to try and curb the spread of the virus in Tehran.
— AP
An incendiary balloon, likely launched by terrorists in the Gaza Strip, lands in the Israeli region of Shaar Hanegev.
The balloon, attached to an incendiary device, is neutralized by a police sapper, police say in a statement.
בלון שאליו מחובר צינור תבערה נחת בתחום המועצה האזורית שער הנגב ונוטרל על ידי חבלני משטרה
צילום: דוברות המשטרה@pozailov1 pic.twitter.com/bGxHEK9i49— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 1, 2020
Economists with Stanford University have calculated, using a statistical model, that an estimated 700 people have died of COVID-19 as a result of 18 election campaign rallies held by US President Donald Trump between June and September, according to the New York Times.
The model is based on a regression analysis that compared the areas where the rallies were held to other place similar in demographics and virus trajectories. It didn’t study individual cases linked to the rallies.
It found that more than 30,000 infections are likely to have been caused by the rallies, not solely among attendees.
Australia has recorded no new locally transmitted coronavirus infections for the first time in five months.
In Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, which had the highest number of cases in the country, residents have enjoyed the first weekend of cafes, restaurants and pubs reopening to walk-in customers.
The city only has one mystery case without a known source. There are 61 active cases left across the state, down from 70 yesterday.
State Deputy Premier James Merlino has hailed today’s zero figure as “another great day for Victoria,” but urges caution ahead of Australia’s most prestigious horse race on Tuesday, the Melbourne Cup, known as the “race that stops a nation.”
Australians traditionally gather in bars or in private homes to watch the event, a public holiday. The race attracts crowds of more than 100,000 at Melbourne’s Flemington racecourse, but this year it will be held without fans because of restrictions on public gatherings.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton urges Victorians to enjoy the Cup but to continue obeying guidance on mask-wearing and social distancing.
“The great majority of Melburnians know what do to,” Sutton says. “There will be a few who may be a bit liberal in their behavior.”
Sutton says the new wave of infections in Europe show how quickly the coronavirus can reassert itself.
“What Europe is going through now is a consequence of not being able to get to this point where you can stay on top of very low numbers,” he says. “What we have created is very precious and we need to hold onto it tightly.”
Western Australia state records one new case of COVID-19, a woman who returned from overseas and is in hotel quarantine.
— AP
Police in Belarus disperse protesters who were marching from central Minsk to a Stalin-era execution site in the latest of weeks of demonstrations against strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed reelection.
Loud bangs and gunfire are heard, with police seen chasing protesters in a field not far from the Kuropaty site, a wooded area on the outskirts of Minsk where thousands of people were executed during Stalin’s purges.
— AFP
A key road linking the southern city of Eilat with the rest of the country has been blocked due to flooding, as the desert region is pounded with heavy rain and hail for the first time this season.
Route 90 is closed blocked to traffic in both directions between Kibbutz Be’er Ora and the northern entrance to Eilat, police say in a statement.
Officers are at the scene to redirect the traffic, the statement says.
זרימות וסחף על כביש הערבה סמוך לקיבוץ סמר. לתחזית המלאה: https://t.co/yEwQsYgOt2@pozailov1 (צילום: דוברות המועצה האזורית חבל אילות) pic.twitter.com/bp9f8DKXIa
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 1, 2020
After the Knesset voted down a law bill to make state forms more LGBT-friendly by replacing “Mother” and “Father” with “Parent 1” and “Parent 2,” the Justice Ministry says it is going ahead with the reform anyway on forms belonging to the ministry.
Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn is from Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, which supports laws promoting LGBT rights.
The ministry says the first forms in which the change will be implemented this week are a request for an inheritance order, a request for a civil union or to be added or removed from the civil union registry, a request for details about the property of absentees and a request to register a nonprofit.
The US government’s top infectious diseases expert is cautioning that the country will have to deal with “a whole lot of hurt” in the weeks ahead due to surging coronavirus cases.
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s comments in a Washington Post interview take issue with US President Donald Trump’s frequent assertion that the nation is “rounding the turn” on the virus.
Fauci says the US “could not possibly be positioned more poorly” to stem rising cases as more people gather indoors during the colder fall and winter months. He says the US will need to make an “abrupt change” in public health precautions.
Speaking of the risks, Fauci says he believes Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden “is taking it seriously from a public health perspective,” while Trump is “looking at it from a different perspective.” Fauci, who’s on the White House coronavirus task force, says that perspective is “the economy and reopening the country.”
In response, White House spokesman Judd Deere says Trump always puts people’s well-being first and Deere charges that Fauci has decided “to play politics” right before Tuesday’s election.
Deere says Fauci “has a duty to express concerns or push for a change in strategy” but instead is “choosing to criticize the president in the media and make his political leanings known.”
Fauci has said that in his decades of public service, he’s never publicly endorsed any political candidate.
— AP
Route 90 between Kibbutz Be’er Ora and Eilat, which was blocked due to floods in the first rain of the season in the area, is reopened in both directions, police say in a statement.
Footage from the city’s Ramon Airport shows strong winds sending objects — other than planes — flying.
תמונות משוגעות מנמל התעופה רמון הסמוך לאילת. גם תשתיות הקרקע החליטו לעוף ✈. צילום: חו"ל מהודר @ynetalerts pic.twitter.com/2hnlSHpo9T
— איתי בלומנטל Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) November 1, 2020
The sword-wielding attacker dressed in medieval clothing who killed two people and injured five on Saturday night in Quebec was not “associated with a terrorist group,” Canadian police say.
“Yesterday evening we were plunged into a night of horror when a 24-year-old man, who does not live in Quebec, came with the intention of claiming as many victims as possible,” Quebec City police chief Robert Pigeon tells reporters.
“Everything leads us to believe” that the suspect, who was armed with a Japanese sword, “chose his victims at random,” Pigeon adds.
The suspect was arrested early today after a manhunt through the streets of Old Quebec.
— AFP
Police say they have arrested two residents of Lod after they attempted to evade police questioning by speeding in their car and crashing into a police vehicle.
A police officer is suffering from mild injuries as a result of the incident.
The suspects, aged 20 and 21, have been taken for questioning and the circumstances of the incident are being investigated, police say.
Iran says it will restrict travel to the cities hit hardest by the novel coronavirus, according to state TV, amid a record high of daily COVID-19 deaths.
The measure takes effect tomorrow midday and will last until Friday, the broadcaster reports, citing an order by the interior ministry.
The restrictions prevent residents from leaving and non-residents from entering based on vehicle plate numbers, but do not apply to public transportation, it adds.
It applies to the capitals of 25 provinces considered “red” — the highest level on Iran’s color-coded risk scale — and includes the capital Tehran with more than 8 million residents.
Violators will be fined, the order adds.
Limited restrictive measures were imposed yesterday in those cities, forcing the closure of some public spaces and businesses.
Iran has been hit the worst by COVID-19 in the Middle East and has recorded several daily fatality and infection highs in recent days.
— AFP
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announces a pilot program that will see the mandatory 14-day coronavirus quarantine shortened to just 12 days.
Edelstein has made the decision following consultations with ministry professionals, the Health Ministry says in a statement.
The outline for the pilot program will be drafted in the coming days. It will be in effect until the end of 2020.
“Our goal is to enable maximal freedom with minimal danger to public health,” Edelstein says.
The Education Ministry says there are 1,489 students known to be currently infected with the coronavirus.
The ministry says two elementary schools out of 5,000 operating nationwide were closed today — the first day of studies — due to pupils being confirmed as carriers.
It adds that over the past two weeks, 134 kindergartens out of 21,000 have been closed due to COVID-19 infections.
Facing a relentless surge in cases of coronavirus infections, Lebanese authorities are lengthening a nationwide nighttime curfew and placing a number of towns and villages under total lockdown.
The Interior Ministry’s decisions increase a nighttime curfew by four hours, asking people to stay off the streets and shops to close between 9 p.m. local time and 5 a.m. It does not set an end date.
The Interior Ministry also puts 115 towns and villages in total lockdown for a week because of a high positive infection rate and “high level of danger.” Bars and nightclubs will continue to be closed; restaurants and cafes are to continue to operate at 50% while public gatherings and parties are barred.
Lebanon, a country of over 5 million, has been witnessing a surge of infection cases, deaths and intensive care unit occupancy over the past weeks that brought the recorded cases to over 80,000. According to health ministry statistics, the number of recorded cases nearly doubled between September and October in the country that is also home to over 1 million refugees and their descendants.
The percentage of positive tests has increased to over 12% and the average age of those who die from the virus has gone down.
— AP
Rabbi Chaim Kavievsky, the top non-Hasidic Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox spiritual leader in Israel, is seen publicly for the first time since recovering from COVID-19.
The 92-year-old, his hand bandaged for an unknown reason, is seen on the way to the funeral of US-born Rabbi Shimon Brecher, one of his closest associates, who has died of the coronavirus aged 58.
לראשונה מאז החלים מהקורונה, הרב קנייבסקי יצא מביתו להלווייתו של הנגיד שמעון ברכר ז"ל מארה"ב, אחד מהאנשים הכי מקורבים אליו, שנפטר מהקורונה בגיל 56 pic.twitter.com/Verzo1WaTW
— אהרן רבינוביץ (@AronRabino1) November 1, 2020
Health Ministry figures indicate a possible reversal of the downward trend in coronavirus infections, showing the rate of positive tests has gone up from 1.8% to 2.1% on Friday, 2.9% yesterday and 4% so far today — a partial figure, but if the final count will be similar it would be the highest positivity rate since October 16.
The basic reproduction number, which has been continuously declining before starting to rise again four days ago, leaps and almost reaches the threshold beyond which the number of active cases is growing, not declining.
The effect these figures will have on the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions remains to be seen.
The data also includes a more encouraging figure: the number of active cases is 9,762, dipping below 10,000 for the first time in months.
The ministry says 219 cases were confirmed yesterday out of 7,662 tests (testing rates typically drop sharply over the weekend), and 329 were identified today by 5:30 p.m. out of 8,133.
The death toll has gone up by 12 since the morning, to 2,553.
The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic is 314,778.
There are 392 serious patients, including 171 on ventilators, and 118 in moderate condition.
Scuffles break out in an anti-Netanyahu protest encampment near the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, as police officers and inspectors come to removes nylon covering from a tent.
Footage shows the protesters trying to prevent the move.
One of them was arrested, according to Hebrew-language media reports.
עימותים במאהל המחאה נגד ראש הממשלה: פקחים מאובטחים בשוטרים הגיעו להוריד ניילון מהאוהלים מול מעון רה"מ ואחד המוחים נעצר@VeredPelman
(צילום: א.כהן) pic.twitter.com/CQEGHPsFgV— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) November 1, 2020
A poll published by Channel 13 shows a widening gap for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party over Naftali Bennet’s Yamina, which has been surging in opinion surveys ahead of elections that are seen as likely to be called in the coming months.
According to the poll, were elections to have been held today, Likud would get 29 seats in the 120-member Knesset, while the religious right-wing Yamina would get 22. (Yamina currently has just 5 seats.)
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid-Telem would get 20, the predominantly Arab Joint List would get 12, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White would have 10, Yisrael Beytenu and the Haredi parties, United Torah Judaism and Shas, would get 7 each, and the left-wing Meretz would get 6 seats.
Asked whom they preferred as prime minister, 36% answered Netanyahu, 21% said Bennett, 15% said Lapid, and 11% preferred Gantz.
The poll was conducted by the Midgam Institute among 720 respondents, with a 3.9% margin of error.
An unconfirmed report says that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has made a final decision to not indict several corporations in the cases in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others are charged with corruption offenses, meaning the trial will not face delays.
Even though the chief editor of the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, Arnon Mozes, and the owner of the Walla news site and the Bezeq telecommunications group, Shaul Elovitch, are charged of bribery, and even though the companies profited from alleged bribery deals, charges will not be filed against Yedioth, Walla and Bezeq, according to the unsourced report by the Globes business newspaper.
The report says there have been fierce disagreements on the matter inside the state prosecution, with some officials arguing that the decision not to indict the corporations goes against the normal enforcement policy. However, Mandelblit reportedly believes that adding the firms to the list of defendants would diminish the roles played in the cases by Mozes and Elovitch and needlessly delay the entire process by many months.
A statement quoting “associates” of Netanyahu says the decision “proves there is no basis for the absurd bribery charge against Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
