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July 20th, 2020 
Awake Goy The Latest:
- 9,055 total confirmed cases of Palestinians testing positive for COVID-19; 7,692 in the West Bank; 72 in Gaza; 1,291 in East Jerusalem
- 55 Palestinians have died from COVID-19 related causes
- 81 Palestinian healthcare workers have tested positive for COVID-19
- 46,546 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Israel; 387 have died from COVID-19 related causes
This week the Palestinian Authority ordered nighttime and weekend curfews across the West Bank to slow the spread of the second wave of the coronavirus that is proving far more extensive and fatal that the first outbreak that began in March.
July 1 was the turning point. We’ve been following the state of emergency and its various iterations over the past few months. Initially in mid-March the West Bank was locked down rather quickly and decisively, but closure measures began lifting at the end of May. By the start of this month it was clear that the easing of curfews and shut downs would likely be reversed.
Over the last two weeks the average daily new cases of COVID-19 in the West Bank has been 365, according to the latest situation report from the World Health Organization. The data reveals cases continued springing up mostly in the Hebron area, where at least 5,851 tested positive. Hebron is also the location of at least 40 of the 55 Palestinian deaths from the disease.
At the same time, the WHO reported that isolated areas with no or zero cases of COVID-19 continue to show no growth in positive tests. That means while the virus is still spreading, it is relatively contained. There are still around 2,000 active cases in the West Bank.
In the Tuesday edition of this newsletter Mondoweiss’ correspondent Yumna Patel wrote about the youngest COVID-19 fatality in the West Bank, a 12-day-old infant from the Hebron area town of Yatta. While the coronavirus seems to impact younger patients less severely than older people, we noticed the WHO data showed around half of all of the Palestinians who have tested positive for COVID-19 are under the age of 30.
Israel Halts Construction of COVID-19 Facility in Hebron
Hebron has been the center of the COVID-19 crisis in the West Bank, but earlier this week Israel prevented the construction of a facility in the city that would have helped with the outbreak.
Yumna Patel spoke with Hebron’s mayor, Tayseer Abu Sneineh, about the city’s plans to build a dedicated COVID-19 clinic to help with the city’s overwhelmed hospitals. The facility was slated to be built on private Palestinian land that was donated to the city.
“The soldiers handed the workers a notice, saying that the owner of the land had four days to prove he had building permits, or else we would be forced to demolish the structure,” Abu Sneineh told Mondoweiss, adding that it would be nearly impossible to obtain permits from Israel in such a short period of time.
“Hebron is in crisis right now, and this hospital would have really saved us,” he said. “But the occupation doesn’t care.”
You can read the full story here.
Israeli Violations Continue Despite COVID-19 Spike
Israel has demolished at least 31 Palestinian homes and structures over the past two weeks, according to a new report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The demolitions were documented in East Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, Hebron, and Jerusalem districts of the West Bank and included the destruction of at least 12 Palestinian Bedouin homes in the Jordan Valley-area community of Fasayil. Overall, 13 Palestinians were displaced, and 100 others were affected by the demolitions.
Additionally, several instances of settler attacks on Palestinians and their property were documented, including the burning and uprooting of dozens of olive trees in the Hebron and Nablus areas. Five Palestinians were injured in settler attacks, including three with live ammunition. Israeli raids on Palestinian towns and cities continued, with UN OCHA documenting 150 search and arrest operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Many Palestinians were arrested during protests and clashes with Israeli forces, which also resulted in the injury of 74 Palestinians.
Nighttime and Weekend Curfews
Palestinian officials urgently stepped up closures to prevent any further cognition between regions this week. Beginning Sunday all travel between governorates is banned for the next two weeks, said spokesperson Ibrahim Milhim. He announced a total ban on movement inside of the major cities Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Nablus from Sunday until yesterday.
Between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., and on weekends, all movement on the streets is prohibited.
“It’s completely forbidden to hold weddings, mourning homes, public events or gatherings,” Milhim said.
More Testing Comes to Gaza
This week also saw a shipment of 8,000 test kits delivered to Gaza, purchased by the Austrian Development Agency. That’s a large number of tests for Gaza where only 13,387 tests have been conducted across the entire strip to date. That’s about 140,000 less testing kits than the West Bank received, which is an enormous gap when considering the population sizes. Gaza’s is around 2 million, and the West Bank is 2.7 million.
One piece of information to keep in mind when taking in these numbers: in Gaza returning travelers are each administered two COVID-19 tests before they can be released into the general public. What we see happening here is that while the West Bank is moving towards a model of mass testing, in Gaza testing is still mostly available to those at government isolation centers.
Schools Raising the Curve
Like the West Bank, Israel is dealing with a more permeating second COVID-19 wave. First through third graders went back to school during the beginning of May. In mid-May, when there were only dozens of new coronavirus cases each day, the government made the decision to reopen all schools. That seems to be the cause of around 50% of the new cases according to a report out this week from the Daily Beast. Epidemiologists, teachers, and administrators were against the reopening, yet it went ahead under intense political pressure.
Epidemiologist Hagai Levine at the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem told the Daily Beast, “contrary to our advice, the government decided to open the entire system all at once on May 17. What happened next was entirely predictable.”
It looks like the coronavirus is going to be with us for a while. Stay safe and we’ll see you next week.
Source Article from https://mondoweiss.net/2020/07/the-entire-west-bank-headed-back-to-lockdown/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-entire-west-bank-headed-back-to-lockdown
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