Israel Update 1.10.20

CORONAVIRUS IN ISRAEL

 

The Israeli government overnight voted to tighten coronavirus restrictions and to extend the lockdown another three days until 14 October. Among new restrictions, people now will only be able to travel wherever they want to purchase essential products or obtain essential services if these are not available within a kilometre from home. The measures are subject to a Knesset vote later today.Read more here

 

Israel’s Health Ministry reported Thursday morning that 8,919 new cases of coronavirus had been detected on Wednesday. There are currently 810 patients in serious condition in hospitals, among them 206 patients on ventilators. The death toll has risen to 1,571. Since the start of the outbreak, 248,133 people have contracted the pathogen. The figure has almost doubled over the past month, as only 116,882 virus carriers had been confirmed by September 1. There are 68,811 active patients, currently ill with the disease, in Israel.  Read more here

 

The Health Ministry Director-General said on Wednesday that 34% of those diagnosed with the virus in Israel were ultra-Orthodox, though the community constitutes only approximately 12% of the population. Read more here

 

Confirmed coronavirus carries were identified on 17 different flights to Tel Aviv from Ukraine and Belarus. Despite Health Ministry warnings, thousands of Israelis travelled to Ukraine to the pilgrimage site of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, before the borders were closed in September. Thousands of others then travelled to neighbouring Belarus attempting to cross the border into Ukraine. Read more here

 

Israel has the world’s worst daily coronavirus infection numbers per capita for the last week — a rate almost three times higher than the next badly-hit country, global data indicated Tuesday. Read more here

 

TESTING

 

As of Monday, Israel led the world in the rate of coronavirus tests performed, at 372,325 per million residents, according to data compiled by Statista.com. Read more here

 

TREATMENT

 

Five patients hospitalised in serious or critical condition were recently discharged free of coronavirus after taking part in the first clinical trial of an innovative treatment, Allocetra, developed by Hadassah Medical Centre with the Enlivex Company. It had previously been successfully tested on ten sepsis patients. Read more here

 

GAZA

 

Two armed Gazans were arrested by IDF  troops on Thursday after they infiltrated into Israel. Read more here

 

Hamas military prosecutors have charged three Gazan activists with “weakening revolutionary spirit” — a charge that could lead to years in prison — for holding a video conference with Israelis. The activists are members of the Gaza Youth Committee, an organization that sponsors peace-building initiatives. Read more here

 

A TV programme on Qatar’s Al Jazeera presented footage showing Hamas members collecting Iranian Fajr missiles and Kornet anti-tank missiles, received by land and sea. Hamas also have drones and anti-tank missiles and shoulder-launched rockets produced by Russia. They also plan to acquire Chinese C-704 missiles, anti-ship missiles with a range of 35 km. (21 miles) and radar systems for guided missiles. Read more here

 

HIZBULLAH

 

In a speech via video to the UN General Assembly, PM Netanyahu revealed a Hizbullah arms depot embedded in a residential area near Beirut Airport, adjacent to a gas company and a gas station. Read more here

 

The IDF identified two additional Hizbullah missile sites in Beirut.  One site is an underground facility built beneath four seven-story apartment buildings. The second site is also a subterranean facility, located under five apartment buildings. Read more here

 

ISRAEL & THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

 

SURE Universal of Ramat Gan, Israel, has partnered with the UAE’s HBK Department of Projects to launch a white-label smart IoT healthcare solution, HBKiCare, a universal remote healthcare Internet of Things (IoT) platform and home care kit enabling continuous monitoring of ECG, temperature, pulse, blood oxygen and blood pressure. The product also can detect falls and monitor activities of daily living (ADLs) and personal location, supported by AI-based insights and voice-activated interaction via Google Home, Amazon Alexa or Baidu. Read more here

 

An Arab club, Dubai’s Al-Nasr, has for the first time signed an Israeli footballer, Diaa Sabia, a 27-year-old Israeli Arab player, currently an attacking midfielder with China’s Guangzhou R&F. Sabia has also played for several Israeli clubs. Read more here

 

Singers from both countries came together for a first-of-its-kind duet titled “Hello, friend,” featuring Israel’s Elkana Martziano and the UAE’s Walid Aljassim.Read more here

 View here

 

DEFENCE

 

The Czech Republic has signed a deal with Israel to purchase a new air defence system SPYDER from Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd. The Czech Defence Minister said the Israeli system would be key to modernizing the Czech armed forces. Read more here

 

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is to collaborate with Bosnia and Herzegovina to open an “online cyber academy” that will train local students on one of the cybersecurity simulators of the Israeli firm.Read more here

 

Israel on Wednesday delivered the first of two Iron Dome missile defence batteries to the U.S. Army. Read more here

 

INNOVATION

 

Israeli designer Anai Green was named as one of four winners of an international women’s climate tech challenge for her development of an outdoor fabric for urban shading that is embedded with organic solar cells to provide lighting at night. “Lumiweave”  is designed for off-the-grid soft linear light and shade. It can be used in a range of applications, from umbrellas to large canopies. Read more here

 

Four Israeli universities are listed in PitchBook’s 2020 ranking of 50 leading global undergraduate programmes producing the most entrepreneurs who go on to obtain venture funding. Read more here

 

Storedot has adapted its ultra fast-charging technology for use with drones. Drone batteries normally take at least an hour to recharge and last only up to 45 minutes.  Read more here

 

MEDICAL INNOVATION

 

Israeli researchers have developed a prototype of a wearable device that predicts epileptic seizures based on machine-learning algorithms, and generates an advance warning of an upcoming seizure an hour before onset. Epiness was developed by researchers at Ben-Gurion University. Read more here

 

SPORT

 

Tottenham Hotspur host Maccabi Haifa tonight (Oct 1) in a Europa League play-off. Read more here

 

WINE

 

Six Israeli wineries won gold medals in the 2020 Decanter World Wine Awards the world’s largest wine contest. 31 Israeli wines received silver awards and 28, bronze awards.Read more here

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Orde Kittrie:  The UAE-Israel Peace Treaty commits the two countries to a relationship far warmer than the cold peace Israel has with Egypt and Jordan (outside the security field). It will facilitate peace by showing that Arab governments and their citizens benefit more by partnering with Israel than by seeking to isolate or dismantle it. The UAE’s commitment to sweeping government-to-government cooperation with Israel, close people-to-people relations with Israelis, and other stark departures from the zero-sum Palestinian agenda represent a remarkable strategic pivot. Read more here

 

Interview with epidemiologist Dr Michael Edelstein who until recently worked at Public Health England. He left last month to take up a professorship at Bar Ilan University’s medical school in Safed. He is also president of the infectious diseases section of the European Public Health Association, has served on expert groups for the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and is deputy editor of the journal Epidemiology and Infection.Read more here