The Israeli government has extended an emergency provision that bars public gatherings, including widespread protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for an additional week.
Government ministers approved the measure until Oct. 13 by a telephone vote, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement late Wednesday.
Israel imposed a nationwide lockdown ahead of the Jewish High Holidays last month to rein in the country's surging coronavirus outbreak. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed a law last week allowing the government to declare a special week-long state of emergency to limit participation in assemblies because of the pandemic. The government then declared the state of emergency, limiting all public gatherings to within a kilometer of a person's home.
Netanyahu has said the restrictions are driven by safety concerns as the country battles a runaway pandemic, but critics and protesters accuse him of tightening the lockdown to muzzle their movement and expression of dissent.
Thousands of Israelis have participated in weekly demonstrations outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem for months this summer, calling on the longtime prime minister to resign while on trial for corruption.
Since the restriction was approved last month, tens of thousands of Israelis have staged protests on street corners and public squares near their homes against the government’s perceived mishandling of the coronavirus crisis and its economic fallout.
The Health Ministry has recorded over 282,000 confirmed cases of the disease and over 1,800 deaths.
After nearly three weeks of lockdown, the number of new cases is gradually decreasing, but infections are still spreading.
