“Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were granted Monday overnight a brief extension in unity talks, following a joint request to President Reuven Rivlin to extend the Kahol Lavan leader’s mandate to form a coalition. Rivlin gave Gantz until Wednesday at midnight to reach an agreement on a unity government that could tackle the coronavirus crisis. The two leaders met for several hours on Monday night and again on Tuesday morning. They said they would reconvene on Wednesday.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz suspended talks on forming a unity government for the last day of Passover holiday that starts Tuesday evening, promising to continue on Wednesday evening just hours before a deadline to ink a deal. After talks throughout the day Tuesday, Blue and White and Likud issued a joint statement saying that Netanyahu and Gantz, and their teams, would ‘meet again after the holiday with the aim of reaching an agreement on establishing a national emergency government.'”

“Both Netanyahu and Gantz reported ‘significant progress’ in their negotiations and Rivlin, whose duties include overseeing coalition negotiations, said he was convinced they were close and gave them two more days to wrap up a deal, till midnight Wednesday. Should they fail, the clock will start ticking toward the dissolution of parliament and a possible, yet still seemingly improbable, fourth election in just over a year.”

“A television opinion poll aired Monday gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party 40 Knesset seats if elections were held today and placed him at the head of a right-wing bloc that has a clear majority in parliament…According to the Channel 12 survey, Blue and White, led by Netanyahu’s chief rival MK Benny Gantz, would win 19 seats, also four more than it currently holds, to become the second largest party after Likud. But Blue and White won 33 seats in the elections just five weeks ago, since when its Yesh Atid and Telem factions have split off in protest at Gantz’s decision to seek a unity coalition with Netanyahu in breach of the party’s year-long pledge not to partner with the prime minister so long as he faces corruption charges.

“In Israel, however, after one deadline comes another deadline. At the end of every dead end there’s an escape route. At every crossroads lurks a path unknown by any GPS system. By comparison, the drama surrounding the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem makes the ‘House of Cards’ look like ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ In the early morning hours of April 14, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin agreed to extend Gantz’s mandate to assemble a government, but only for 48 hours. Usually, if a Knesset member tasked with assembling a government asks for time beyond the designated 28 days, the president should grant an additional 14 days. Given the low degree of trust in the political abilities of Gantz and in the political credibility of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, the president granted only two days.”

“Officers were dispatched to a crime scene in the southern West Bank overnight Monday after receiving a report that a group of masked Israeli settlers pepper-sprayed and hurled stones at three Palestinians and firebombed their two vehicles before fleeing the scene, police said in a statement. The incident took place near Metzoke Dragot, where a group of 20 far-right extremists are being housed in an outpost established for them by the IDF in order to self-quarantine, after they came in contact with a COVID-19 carrier. The three Palestinians did not require medical assistance, according to police. Channel 12 said a woman in one of the vehicles was an Arab Israeli resident of Haifa, who fainted at the scene.”

“The warning letters, obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, are notable because the Democratic Majority for Israel has pushed back openly against left-wing Democratic critics of Israel’s control of the West Bank. The DMFI has an affiliated political action committee. The letters were sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and two of his rivals, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid. Annexation of parts of the West Bank may be on the table as part of a coalition agreement, according to reports. The new letters come around the same time a similar warning to Gantz and his fellow party leaders from more than 130 American Jews, including a number who have long been involved in the pro-Israel mainstream.”

“The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced Tuesday afternoon that 10 more people have been infected with coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the West Bank to 320.”

“The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Palestinian Territories (COGAT) announced on Sunday that it intends to transfer an advanced medical device, known as a PCR machine or thermal cycler, to detect cases of coronavirus in the Gaza Strip, according to a press release from the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. The PCR machines will be sent to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip via the Erez Crossing. The decision to transfer the rapid diagnostics device was done in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and lack of healthcare infrastructure to manage an increase in testing in Gaza. The new device will allow Gazan health authorities to double the number of tests carried out per day.”

“The Gaza Strip has resumed testing for the coronavirus, a Health Ministry spokesperson said Monday after Israel allowed the delivery of five World Health Organization-purchased testing kits into the impoverished enclave. ‘We need to carry out these tests all the time and therefore, we are in need of thousands of testing kits,’ said spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra. Last week, health authorities in the Hamas-run coastal strip said because they had run out of testing kits, hundreds of people waiting on results would have to remain in quarantine.”

“The Health Ministry will begin testing over 150,000 Palestinians living in east Jerusalem beyond the separation barrier for the coronavirus. The testing efforts comes as a response to a petition filed to the High Court of Justice by Adalah, the Israeli Arab Minority Legal Center, on April 8, demanding that 150,000 residents be tested. The petition was filed on behalf of a number of organizations located in Shuafat and Kafr Akab.”

“The West Bank and Gaza Strip are confronting COVID-19 from a reality of Israeli military occupation, which weakens the ability of the Palestinian authorities and the Palestinian people to respond effectively to the deadly virus. While many health care systems around the world are struggling to deal with the pandemic, the 53-year occupation has seriously depleted medical capabilities in the West Bank and Gaza. The donor-dependent system has shortages in equipment, medication, and staff due to such issues as military raids and restrictions on imports. In the Gaza Strip in particular – deemed unliveable by the UN as a result of over 13 years of blockade and multiple wars – the health care system already struggled to deal with medical cases before the pandemic. Indeed, Gaza currently has only 78 ICU beds and 63 ventilators for a population of two million.”

“Hamas is ready to release information on Israeli prisoners if Israel releases 250 prisoners it’s holding, but is still not ready to negotiate a deal to release the Israeli captives, according to Al-Akhbar. A German mediator who was involved in the prisoner swap that led to the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 has begun participating in the current talks between Israel and Hamas.”

“Senior Palestinian officials refused on Monday to back down on accusations that Israel has been responsible for intentionally spreading the coronavirus in the West Bank, after Jerusalem called such claims “incitement” and warned of significant consequences for repeating them. ‘We will not bow to blackmail in any form,’ Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said during a press conference.”

“The country’s death toll climbed to 119 on Tuesday afternoon with the death of an 82-year old man at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, preceded earlier by the passing of an 81-year-old man Ichilov Hospital. A total of 11,868 people cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed to date, including 180 patients in serious condition, and 136 requiring ventilation. Some 2,000 individuals have recovered from the virus.”

“Israel has reinstated a coronavirus regulation that bans residents from leaving their towns or neighborhoods. The lockdown will last from 5 p.m. Tuesday until Thursday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday evening in a nationally televised address. After the start of Passover last week, Israel had lifted the restriction on residents leaving their communities, except in haredi Orthodox neighborhoods. The lockdown will prevent Israeli families from gathering for the end of Passover as well as Mimouna, the traditional North African Jewish celebration dinner marking the end of the holiday.”

“The government tells the High Court of Justice it is considering tasking the Shin Bet with other roles to help contain the coronavirus outbreak, after authorizing the domestic spy agency to track the phones of carriers of the virus and those they were in close proximity to. Responding to a High Court petition against the controversial phone tracking program, the government says these additional tasks would be ‘to improve the effectiveness of the aid given to the Health Ministry, so it will be possible to work to slow the spread of the virus while partially removing the restrictions on freedom of movement.’ It doesn’t, however, give any details on what further measures are under consideration.”