Israel News for 10-19-2020
News Update
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The Health Ministry reported 892 new coronavirus cases on Sunday. The contagion rate has dropped to 3.5%, as the country slowly begins to emerge from lockdown. There are currently 27,000 active cases of which 619 people are hospitalized in serious condition and 212 on ventilators. There have been 2,209 coronavirus related deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, 65, is on a respirator in serious condition at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, as a result of Covid-19. He underwent a lung transplant in the US in 2017.
The first commercial flight from the UAE landed in Israel today with 58 passengers. Tomorrow, Israel and the United Arab Emirates will a sign a deal to allow 28 weekly commercial flights between Ben Gurion airport, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
A Russian fighter jet came within a mile of an Israeli commercial flight over Cyprus. The Israir Airlines plane was returning to Israel from Rhodes. The fighter jet shadowed the Israeli plane for several minutes before being warned off by air traffic controllers.
Foreign Ministry director general Alon Ushpiz and National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat led an Israeli delegation to Bahrain yesterday, where they signed a joint communique to formalize ties between the 2 countries. The Israeli delegation was accompanied by US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin who, along with other U.S. officials, will travel to the UAE today and then join the UAE’s first delegation to Israel on Tuesday.
