“On Thursday, the Palestinian Authority representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, sent a letter to the Security Council, accusing Israel of hampering the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus in PA territory, and exploiting the emergency situation to demolish Palestinian homes and expand ‘settlements’. In his letter to council members, Mansour notes that in recent days, Israel confiscated equipment intended for the construction of first aid tents, arrested four Palestinians while scavenging public facilities and obstructed Palestinian volunteers in Hebron who were disinfecting neighborhoods and conducting advocacy activities for residents.” Also see: Dr. Ashrawi: Israel deliberately undermining Palestinian efforts to combat COVID19 pandemic

“Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday extended the state of emergency for another 30 days due to the spread of the coronavirus, Kan News reported. The move came after cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh recommended to Abbas that the state of emergency be extended to enable the health and security services to control the spread of COVID-19, according to the PA’s official news agency Wafa.” Also see: Al-Monitor – COVID-19 expenses upending PA budget formulation

“…The operation will support efforts to slow down and limit the transmission of COVID-19 and improve the clinical care and case management of those affected by the disease. The project will be implemented through fast track procedures to help in early detection and proper recording of infected case as inputs for risk assessment and mitigation. It will support the procurement of essential equipment and consumables for laboratory and diagnostic systems, such as ventilators, polymerase chain reaction (amplification technique for specific part of DNA) machines and test kits.”

“On Thursday, a coronavirus testing facility has opened near Mea Shearim, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. Earlier, a ‘drive-through’ testing center opened in the East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.”

“The overwhelming majority of ventilators in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are already being used by patients with conditions unrelated to the highly contagious coronavirus, a World Health Organization official warned on Thursday. Eighty to 90 percent of the 256 adult ventilators in the West Bank and the 87 in the Gaza Strip are currently unavailable, Gerald Rockenschaub, the head of the WHO’s mission to the Palestinians, told The Times of Israel. ‘They are being used by people who have suffered heart attacks, strokes and other incidents requiring critical care,’ he said.” Also see: Times of Israel – Hamas chief threatens Israel over ventilators for coronavirus patients

“Most of the 21 West Bank Palestinians diagnosed with the coronavirus on Thursday had returned from their work in Israel and the settlements, the Palestinian Authority’s Primary Health Care director-general Kamal al-Shakhra told the Palestinian news agency,WAFA. PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said that the continued movement of the workers between Israel and the West Bank was a ‘severe blow’ to his government’s efforts to curb the spread of the virus.”

“Malka Abu Aker has seen her crowded refugee camp in the West Bank swell year upon year since fleeing there over 70 years ago, with the arrival of new generations and those escaping successive Mideast conflicts. But with the coronavirus spreading locally, the 73-year-old worries that her congested Palestinian camp is primed for contagion, and blames the UN’s cash-strapped Palestinian aid agency for not doing enough to help.”

“A team of engineers and doctors at al-Quds University in the West Bank town of  Abu Dis have succeeded in developing a ventilator prototype, boosting hopes that Palestinians can domestically manufacture the breathing machines vital to treating serious COVID-19 cases. The development might pave the way for Palestinians to reduce, at least partially, the steep shortage of ventilators in Palestinian medical facilities, where there are currently only 256 ventilators in the West Bank and 87 more in the Gaza Strip, according to the World Health Organization.”

“The Palestine-Turkey Friendship Hospital in the occupied Gaza Strip has started operations in an effort to curb the novel coronavirus, the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s spokesperson announced yesterday. ‘The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed in a phone call to start [operating] the hospital in Gaza,’ Ibrahim Melhem told reporters in Ramallah. Melhem thanked the Turkish government and citizens for their ‘continued support to the Palestinian people.’ The hospital’s construction, which was funded by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) governmental department, was completed in 2017. It is set to be one of the largest hospitals in Palestine built on a total area of 34,800 square metres, consisting of six floors and a capacity of 180 beds.”

“Israeli police arrested the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs early Friday for allegedly violating an Israeli ban on Palestinian political activities in east Jerusalem. Fadi al-Hidmi was arrested at his home near the Mount of Olives. His office circulated surveillance camera footage showing police searching his home with dogs. It said they confiscated 10,000 shekels (around $2,750). It was the fourth time he has been arrested. …Palestinian officials said al-Hidmi was working to assist residents as part of their response to the coronavirus pandemic. ‘Israel targets (those) who work for Jerusalem, even at such critical moments as we work to save our people’s lives from COVID19,’ Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh tweeted, referring to the illness caused by the virus. ‘We demand his immediate release.’ Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said al-Hidmi was arrested ‘on suspicions of Palestinian activities in Jerusalem.’”

“Israeli security forces and human rights organizations have recorded a rise in attacks on Palestinians by Jews in the West Bank in the past few weeks. Sources in both attribute it to the Israeli government closing down educational institutions because of the coronavirus epidemic. According to data provided to Haaretz by a defense official, 16 physical confrontations were recorded in March between settlers and Palestinians, compared to only nine in February and five in January. Human rights organizations operating in the area corroborate the trend: Out of the 51 cases of violence, vandalism, theft and threats recorded by monitor B’Tselem since the beginning of 2020, 21 took place in March alone.”

“An emergency unity government to confront coronavirus: that’s been Benjamin Netanyahu’s pitch to his rivals in Kachol Lavan since Israel’s March 2 Knesset elections. Kachol Lavan chief Benny Gantz acquiesced to what he considered Netanyahu’s genuine call to ‘put politics aside’ for the sake of the country’s welfare, splitting his party apart in the process. And now, the prime minister is letting on that dealing with the pandemic was never his only priority.  With coalition negotiations underway in Jerusalem, West Bank annexation still remains a top priority on the agenda for the Israeli right. Netanyahu still wants to pursue the Trump plan, and Naftali Bennett, Yamina party head and acting Defense Minister is making annexation a condition for joining the government.”

“Ten Palestinian political prisoner at Ofer Detention Centre, southwest of Ramallah, launched an open ended hunger strike to protest against the ongoing solitary confinement of two detainees, as well as against Israel’s failure to protect them against the coronavirus, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) announced yesterday. More prisoners have vowed to join the hunger strike if the demands of demands remain unmet, PPS said. Nineteen-year-old Palestinian, Nour Sarsour, from Beitunia near Ramallah, tested positive for coronavirus after his release from prison on Tuesday. The Israel Prison Service failed to test him for the virus and he may have infected other detainees.”

“The Palestinian Prisoners’ Centre for Studies reported on Thursday that the occupation forces arrested 250 Palestinian citizens in March, including 54 children and six women.”

“Israel has agreed to suspend the demolition of inhabited illegal homes in Area C of the West Bank due to the coronavirus outbreak, Israeli officials told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Civil Administration has continued to remove illegal construction in Area C that belongs to settlers or Palestinians. More Palestinian structures have been taken down than Jewish ones. Israel has been under pressure to halt such demolitions, especially when the best way to contain the spread of the coronavirus is for people to remain in home isolation.”

“Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu must apply sovereignty to the West Bank settlements within a month, or his government should cease to exist, MK Ayelet Shaked of the Yamina party warned on Wednesday. ‘If the Prime Minister has approval of the US government to apply sovereignty in the coming months, he must act on it immediately,’ Shaked said. ‘The government that is being formed has no right to exist unless it applies sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley,’ Shaked warned. ‘We know that the window of opportunity for annexation is in the next month of two. [US President Donald] Trump is heading to elections and we do not know what will happen after the elections. We must take advantage of the next two months to apply sovereignty,’ Shaked said.”

“A handful of activists from the Peace Now settlement watchdog are protesting outside of the home of Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, calling on him to block efforts by the Netanyahu government he is slated to join to annex the West Bank. Separately, the Commanders for Israel’s Security has published a petition signed by 220 former senior security chiefs calling on Gantz and his deputy Gabi Ashkenazi to block annexation efforts.”

“Following criticism over its decision to include several left-wing NGOs in an official government discussion on combating the coronavirus pandemic, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Wednesday issued a statement that it ‘won’t involve NGOs or organizations that work to delegitimize Israel in its professional discussions,’ according to Channel 20. The controversy erupted after the Zionist watchdog organization Im Tirtzu exposed a ‘Cross-Sector Roundtable Discussion on Dealing with the Coronavirus Crisis’ event that was organized by the PMO on March 18 and March 24, which included members of the government and civil society organizations. Among the organizations that participated were Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, whose founder and honorary president Dr. Ruchama Marton is a BDS advocates; HaMoked, which submits legal petitions against the Israel Defense Forces and the state on behalf of convicted terrorists; and a number of NGOs who spearheaded the opposition to the government solution for the illegal migrant workers issue in southern Tel Aviv.”

“While authorities are struggling to impose coronavirus restrictions on the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Bnei Brak and in Ajami, in Arab populated southern Jaffa, the southern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Neve Shaanan is proving to be no less of a headache for security forces…On Thursday morning, police superintendent Yaniv Miller briefed Engineering Corps rookies from the IDF who had been assigned to assist patrols in the areas. The soldiers have no policing authorities, and are meant to support the police and border police troops. ‘If anyone thinks of getting in on an arrest, of throwing a kick in – you have no authority,’ he told the army recruits. ‘I’m reminding you, guys, we’re not in the (occupied) territories in the West Bank and not on the border. It takes a long time for a policeman to fire a bullet. A policeman shoots only as a last resort, after he’s been shot at,’ he said.” Video via Twitter.

“People who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent months have heard lengthy speeches that seemed to be taken from one of Oliver Stone’s conspiracist screenplays. He told them that even though he has been elected repeatedly, in reality, the country is controlled by a ‘deep state.’ ‘There’s no democracy here, but a government of bureaucrats and jurists,’ he said. The strings of this shadow government are ostensibly pulled by the prosecution, which Netanyahu views as more dangerous than Hezbollah’s precision missiles. Prosecutors and judges, he believes, have a symbiotic relationship whose goal is ousting him. ‘They want to see me sitting in jail,’ he said in one private conversation, where ‘they’ meant the entire system…”

“As COVID-19 arrives in Gaza, Israelis launch a campaign raising funds and calling on their government to take responsibility for the crisis in the Strip.”