JERUSALEM: Four weeks ago, Israel was celebrating a return to normal life in its battle with COVID-19.
After a rapid vaccination drive that had driven down coronavirus infections and deaths, Israelis had stopped wearing face masks and abandoned all social-distancing rules.
Then came the more infectious Delta variant, and a surge in cases that has forced Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to reimpose some COVID-19 restrictions and rethink strategy.
Under what he calls a policy of “soft suppression,” the government wants Israelis to learn to live with the virus — involving the fewest possible restrictions and avoiding a fourth national lockdown that could do further harm to the economy.
As most Israelis in risk groups have now been vaccinated against COVID-19, Bennett is counting on fewer people than before falling seriously ill when infections rise.
“Implementing the strategy will entail taking certain risks but in the overall consideration, including economic factors, this is the necessary balance,” Bennett said last week.
The main indicator guiding the move is the number of severe COVID-19 cases in hospital, currently around 45. Implementation will entail monitoring infections, encouraging vaccinations, rapid testing and information campaigns about face masks.
The strategy has drawn comparisons with the British government’s plans to reopen England’s economy from lockdown, though Israel is in the process of reinstating some curbs while London is lifting restrictions.
The curbs that have been reinstated include the mandatory wearing of face masks indoors and quarantine for all people arriving in Israel.
Bennett’s strategy, like that of the British government, has been questioned by some scientists.
Israel’s Health Ministry advocates more of a push for stemming infections, Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health at Israel’s Health Ministry, told Kan Radio on Sunday.
“It’s possible that there won’t be a big rise in the severely ill but the price of making such a mistake is what’s worrying us,” she said.
But many other scientists are supportive.
“I am very much in favor of Israel’s approach,” said Nadav Davidovitch, director of the school of public health at Israel’s Ben Gurion University, describing it as a “golden path” between Britain’s easing of restrictions and countries such as Australia that take a tougher line.
The virus ‘won’t stop’
Israel’s last lockdown was enforced in December, about a week after the start of what has been one of the world’s fastest vaccination programs.
New daily COVID-19 infections are running at about 450. The Delta variant, first identified in India, now makes up about 90 percent of cases.
“We estimate that we won’t reach high waves of severe cases like in previous waves,” the health ministry’s director-general, Nachman Ash, said last week. “But if we see that the number and increase rate of severe cases are endangering the (health) system, then we will have to take further steps.”
Around 60 percent of Israel’s 9.3 million population have received at least one shot of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine. On Sunday, the government began offering a third shot to people with a compromised immune system.
Ran Balicer, chair of the government’s expert panel on COVID-19, said Israel had on average had about five severe cases of the virus and one death per day in the last week, after two weeks of zero deaths related to COVID-19.
Noting the impact of the Delta variant, he said the panel was advising caution over the removal of restrictions.
“We do not have enough data from our local outbreak to be able to predict with accuracy what would happen if we let go,” Balicer said.
Some studies have shown that though high, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine’s effectiveness against the Delta variant is lower than against other coronavirus strains. Drawing criticism from some scientists, Pfizer and BioNTech SE have said they will ask US and European regulators to authorize booster shots to head off increased risk of infection six months after inoculation.
Israel is in no rush to approve public booster shots, saying there is no unequivocal data yet showing they are necessary. It is offering approval only to people with weak immune systems on a case-by-case basis.
Authorities are also considering allowing children under 12 to take the vaccine on a case-by-case basis if they suffer from health conditions that put them at high risk of serious complications if they were to catch the virus.
Only “a few hundred” of the 5.5 million people who have been vaccinated in Israel have later been infected with COVID-19, Ash said.
Before the Delta variant arrived, Israel had estimated 75 percent of the population would need to be vaccinated to reach “herd immunity” — the level at which enough of a population are immunized to be able to effectively stop a disease spreading. The estimated threshold is now 80 percent.
Such data ensure doctors remain concerned.
.”..the virus won’t stop. It is evolving, it’s its nature. But our nature is to survive,” said Dr. Gadi Segal, head of the coronavirus ward at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv.
Living with COVID-19: Israel changes strategy as Delta variant hits
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Living with COVID-19: Israel changes strategy as Delta variant hits

- Under what he calls a policy of “soft suppression,” the government wants Israelis to learn to live with the virus
- Israel’s last lockdown was enforced in December, about a week after the start of what has been one of the world’s fastest vaccination programs
Turkish prosecutors add charges of forging diploma against jailed Istanbul mayor
His indictment over his diploma was reported by Milliyet newspaper
ANKARA: Turkish prosecutors charged Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Friday with falsifying his university diploma, a new case threatening more years in prison for President Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival, already jailed pending corruption charges he denies.
Imamoglu, at the center of a sprawling legal crackdown on the main opposition party, has been jailed since March 23 pending trial. He denies the allegations against him, which his party says are orchestrated to protect Erdogan in power.
His indictment over his diploma was reported by Milliyet newspaper, which said prosecutors were seeking eight years and nine months of prison time for the new charges. Reuters could not immediately obtain the document.
On March 18, Istanbul University said it had annulled Imamoglu’s diploma. He was detained a day later on the corruption charges, triggering Turkiye’s largest protests in a decade, and later jailed pending trial.
His detention has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties and some foreign leaders, who call the case politically motivated and anti-democratic. The government denies the case is political.
Imamoglu is the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in any future election. He won re-election as mayor in March last year by a wide margin against a candidate from Erdogan’s ruling AK Party.
Gaza’s Nasser Hospital operating as ‘one massive trauma ward’

- 613 killed at aid distribution sites, near humanitarian convoys, says UN human rights office
GENEVA: Nasser Hospital in Gaza is operating as “one massive trauma ward” due to an influx of patients wounded at non-UN food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
The US- and Israeli-backed GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of deliveries that the UN says is neither impartial nor neutral. It has repeatedly denied that incidents involving people killed or wounded at its sites have occurred.
The GHF said on Friday that “the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys,” and said the UN and humanitarian groups should work “collaboratively” with the GHF to “maximize the amount of aid being securely delivered into Gaza.” The UN in Geneva was immediately available for comment.
FASTFACT
Hundreds of patients, mainly young boys, were being treated for traumatic injuries, including bullet wounds to the head, chest, and knees, according to the WHO.
Referring to medical staff at the Nasser Hospital, Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, told reporters in Geneva: “They’ve seen already for weeks, daily injuries ... (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites. The hospital is now operating as one massive trauma ward.”
Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19.
The UN human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 613 killings, both at aid points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near humanitarian convoys.
“We have recorded 613 killings, both at GHF points and near humanitarian convoys — this is a figure as of June 27. Since then ... there have been further incidents,” Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in Geneva.
The OHCHR said 509 of the 613 were killed near GHF distribution points. The GHF dismissed these numbers as coming “directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry” and were being used to “falsely smear” its effort.
The GHF has previously said it has delivered more than 60 million meals to hungry Palestinians in five weeks “safely and without interference,” while other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that there have been some instances of violent looting and attacks on aid truck drivers, which it described as unacceptable.
Hundreds of patients, mainly young boys, were being treated for traumatic injuries, including bullet wounds to the head, chest, and knees, according to the WHO.
Peeperkorn said health workers at Nasser Hospital and testimonies from family members and friends of those wounded confirmed that the victims had been trying to access aid at sites run by the GHF.
Peeperkorn recounted the cases of a 13-year-old boy shot in the head, as well as a 21-year-old with a bullet lodged in his neck, which rendered him paraplegic.
“There is no chance for any reversal or any proper treatment. Young lives are being destroyed forever,” Peeperkorn said, urging for the fighting to stop and for more food aid to be allowed into Gaza.
French President Macron and Malaysian PM reaffirm calls for Gaza ceasefire

- “Our two countries are urging, more than ever, for a ceasefire,” said Macron
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reaffirmed on Friday their calls for a ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza, as Macron hosted Ibrahim in Paris.
“Our two countries are urging, more than ever, for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages, and for aid to get through,” said Macron, referring to Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Egypt says Ethiopia’s power-generating dam lacks a legally binding agreement

- Egypt firmly rejects Ethiopia’s continued policy of imposing a fait accompli through unilateral actions concerning the Nile River, which is an international shared watercourse
CAIRO: Egypt said on Friday that Ethiopia has consistently lacked the political will to reach a binding agreement on its now-complete dam, an issue that involves Nile River water rights and the interests of Egypt and Sudan.
Ethiopia’s prime minister said Thursday that the country’s power-generating dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, on the Nile is now complete and that the government is “preparing for its official inauguration” in September.
Egypt has long opposed the construction of the dam because it would reduce the country’s share of Nile River waters, which it almost entirely relies on for agriculture and to serve its more than 100 million people.
The more than $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile near the Sudan border began producing power in 2022.
It is expected to eventually produce more than 6,000 MW of electricity — double Ethiopia’s current output.
Ethiopia and Egypt have spent years negotiating an agreement over the dam, which Ethiopia began building in 2011.
Both countries reached no deal despite negotiations spanning 13 years, and it remains unclear how much water Ethiopia will release downstream in the event of a drought.
Egyptian officials, in a statement, called the completion of the dam “unlawful” and said that it violates international law, reflecting “an Ethiopian approach driven by an ideology that seeks to impose water hegemony” instead of equal partnership.
“Egypt firmly rejects Ethiopia’s continued policy of imposing a fait accompli through unilateral actions concerning the Nile River, which is an international shared watercourse,” Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said in a statement on Friday.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in his address to lawmakers on Thursday, said that his country “remains committed to ensuring that our growth does not come at the expense of our Egyptian and Sudanese brothers and sisters.”
“We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water,” he said.
“Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”
However, the Egyptian Water Ministry said on Friday that Ethiopian statements calling for continued negotiations “are merely superficial attempts to improve its image on the international stage.”
“Ethiopia’s positions, marked by evasion and retreat while pursuing unilateralism, are in clear contradiction with its declared willingness to negotiate,” the statement read.
However, Egypt is addressing its water needs by expanding agricultural wastewater treatment and improving irrigation systems, according to the ministry, while also bolstering cooperation with Nile Basin countries through backing development and water-related projects.
Firefighters master one Turkiye wildfire as two others rage on

- Firefighters have been battling more than 600 fires in the drought-hit nation
- By Friday morning, they had gained control over a major fire near the resort town of Cesme
ISTANBUL: Firefighters early Friday gained control over a major wildfire in the western Turkish province of Izmir but two others continued to ravage forests there, a minister said.
Although Turkiye was spared the recent heatwaves that hit the rest of southern Europe, firefighters have been battling more than 600 fires in the drought-hit nation over the past week which have been fueled by high winds.
By Friday morning, they had gained control over a major fire near the resort town of Cesme, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Turkiye’s third city Izmir, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said.
The firefighters’ “intense work overnight and the air intervention that resumed at dawn have brought the fire in Cesme under control,” he wrote on X.
But they were still battling two other wildfires, one in Buca just south of Izmir and another in Odemis, about 100 kilometers further east where an 81-year-old man and a forestry worker died on Thursday.
Forecasters said temperatures were set to rise over the weekend and would reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degree Fahrenheit) in the province early next week.
With the fire under control in Cesme, the road linking the peninsular to Izmir was reopened, Anadolu state news agency said.
But the motorway connecting Izmir and Aydin to the southeast was closed because of the Buca fire, which began at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday and spread quickly due to the wind, CNN Turk said.
It said two people who had been cutting iron for use in construction had been arrested on suspicion of starting the fire.
On Monday, more than 50,000 people were evacuated, mostly in the Izmir area but also from the southern province of Hatay, the AFAD disaster management agency said.
According to figures on the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) website, there have been 96 wildfires in Turkiye so far this year that have ravaged more than 49,652 hectares (122,700 acres) of land.
The area of land burnt has more than doubled since Monday when it stood at nearly 19,000 hectares. EFFIS only maps fires that cover an area of 30 hectares or more.
Experts say human-driven climate change is causing more frequent and more intense wildfires and other natural disasters, and have warned Turkiye to take measures to tackle the problem.