“…to implement the Trump plan, the parts of the West Bank where Palestinians live need to be severed from the areas where Israelis live or plan to live, and the Gaza Strip needs to be cut off. That is exactly what happened this month. The restrictions now in place — justifiable in the short term to contain COVID-19 — would, if maintained, bring the map of Israel/Palestine closer to the Trump plan’s conceptual map, including its recommendation to connect fragmented Palestinian enclaves to each other via tunnels, bridges, and walled bypass roads. There is reason to question whether Israel will lift those restrictions, once the threat of COVID-19 diminishes. Throughout the history of the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, Israel has initiated most of the legal and physical barriers that keep Palestinians out of so-called Israeli areas as “temporary” measures, often during emergencies, but never removed them.”

“In a speech to the nation delivered in mid-March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu awkwardly tried to address all the people who live under the effective control of his government — a difficult task when the very idea goes against his core beliefs. Hard-pressed to find the right words to address his audience, Netanyahu came up with the following: ‘We can do this together. All citizens, all residents, whoever is listening to me now, follow these guidelines, and we will achieve our goal.’ If all the people who live in the territory under Israel’s control were treated as equals, Netanyahu would not have had to divide them into three categories to speak to them directly. Yet that is exactly how the Israeli regime works; it is neither humanistic nor universalistic, and relies on allocating different rights and liberties to different people according to their classification.”

“While the world celebrates fearless healthcare workers tackling the global Coronavirus pandemic, a new report has highlighted how chronic impunity for attacks on Palestinian health workers is keeping them in the firing line.”

“Israeli authorities renewed on Sunday the administrative detention of the female Palestinian prisoner Bushra Al-Tawil, 27, from the occupied West Bank city of Al-Bireh, Quds Press reported. According to the Prisoners’ Media Office, Quds Press said this was the second round of administrative detention for Al-Tawil and it has been renewed for four months. Al-Tawil has spent several terms inside Israeli jails in 2011, 2014 and 2017.”

“The Israeli occupation authorities renewed administrative detention for a Palestinian MP on Sunday. Hassan Yousef, 66, will be held for at least another four months, Quds Press has reported, citing details provided by the MP’s son, Owais. Israel uses so-called administrative detention to hold Palestinians with neither charge nor trial, and to renew the detention period repeatedly. According to Owais Yousef, his father’s detention was supposed to end tomorrow, 31 March. Yousef was detained at his house in the West Bank city of Bitunya, west of Ramallah, on 2 April 2019. He had been free for less than six months, having been released from an earlier period of detention in October 2018.”

“Palestinians across Israel, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the besieged Gaza Strip have cancelled commemoration activities for Land Day for the first time since they began in 1976, amid fears of the Covid-19 pandemic.” Also see: Palestine commemorates Land Day on social media due to coronavirus lockdown

“Forty-four years ago today, the Israeli police shot six Palestinian citizens of Israel dead as they were protesting against the Israeli government’s expropriation of thousands of acres of Palestinian land in the Galilee. Since then, March 30 has been known as Land Day and is an important date in the Palestinian political calendar. This year, Palestinians will be marking Land Day at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left much of the world’s populations under lockdown and curfew. Being confined to their homes or their villages and towns is not a new experience for Palestinians which is perhaps why so many have taken it in their stride. Indeed, Palestinians in the West Bank are confined to what amounts to bantustans connected to each other only by roads controlled by the Israeli regime, while their brothers and sisters in Gaza live in an open-air prison deemed “unliveable” by the United Nations. Most Palestinians living across the ‘Green Line’ have Israeli citizenship, they nevertheless live in urban and rural ghettos.”

“Israeli security forces have arrested two Palestinians in the Ramallah area, including the father of a terrorist responsible for two deadly attacks against soldiers and civilians in 2018. Border Police officers arrested them on suspicion of involvement in several terrorist incidents in recent months, the Israel Police said Tuesday. During the operation, hundreds of local residents threw stones, firebombs, bottles of paint and other objects toward the troops, who responded with riot-dispersal measures, including tear gas and stun grenades.”

“…Gantz is a classic example of a candidate who ran as an unstained non-politician. Yet a military past proved no substitute for political experience when facing a seasoned political strategist such as Netanyahu. In the test of brinkmanship, Gantz lost his will first. And while Gantz’s supporters hoped he’d be a soldier-statesman in the model of Yitzhak Rabin, Gantz lacked the political courage that Rabin showed in ruling with the support of the Arab minority, ignoring the right’s fury. Barring another plot twist, Netanyahu will soon get a vote of confidence in his new government. The facade of parliamentary democracy will be restored. In reality, the system remains in critical condition. A criminal defendant will stay prime minister. Netanyahu has been rewarded, not punished, for his misuse of power in recent days. The exclusion of the Arab minority continues. And more than a million Israelis who voted for Blue and White have received a brutal lesson in political cynicism. In all of this, Gantz is now Netanyahu’s partner.”

“…The question of annexing the West Bank, or perhaps of when to annex, is also at issue. Netanyahu is intent on pursuing the controversial move whenever the United States gives its approval, while Kahol Lavan’s position is that the government should only deal with handling the coronavirus crisis in the first six months, postponing other issues to a later time.”

“…Amid criticism that he is therefore being too generous, Netanyahu spoke to his right-wing and religious political allies on Sunday night to reassure them about the coalition talks, calling reports on the distribution of cabinet portfolios ‘total fake news.’ For now, with time working in his favor and eroding Gantz’s negotiating power, Netanyahu may be right.”

“It’s too early to know how Gantz’ decision will influence the political picture in the Arab community, but it seems that he greatly damaged the will of many Arab citizens to be a part of Israeli society and participate in the political game. ‘Gantz’ move only strengthens the growing consensus among Arab citizens in Israel that every vote for the Zionist parties on the center-left is a potential vote for the formation of a right-wing government,’ explained journalist Mohammad Magadli in conversation with Al-Monitor. ‘Gantz also proves that the vote of Arab citizens for Arab representatives keeps their vote in the right camp: the camp opposing the Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu.’…

“The feeling among the Arab public is not that they were betrayed by politicians who promised to stand by their principles and then reneged on their promise. Rather, they feel enormous disappointment in the Israeli political system as a whole. True, they had boycotted it after the events of October 2000 — when police shot and killed 12 Israeli Arabs and a Palestinian — but over the last year alone, they had begun to once again feel a glimmer of hope…It is now up to Joint List Knesset members to preserve Arab voters’ trust in the political system, even if they feel that they were deceived. It won’t be easy, and it might even be impossible.”

“Israel’s right-wing Yamina Party led by Defence Minister Naftali Bennet has threatened to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as head of the coalition right-wing bloc, Israeli media reported on Monday. ‘We have been part of the right-wing bloc for three difficult elections, and I would like to hope that Netanyahu will not break it up,’ former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told Army Radio. ‘We need to see what government will be formed. Right now, according to reports it seems like everything that is important to the ideological right wing and to Yamina is being handed to the left wing.’” Also see: Yamina threatens to ‘topple Netanyahu’ if new government is not to their liking

“Cyberattack company NSO has developed a system for handling information about the probability that Israelis will be infected by the coronavirus. The system was developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense and the IDF. Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett says that the system will collect information about Israelis, update it in real time, and assign every Israeli an ‘infection rating’ on a scale of 1 to 10.”

“Some 700 troops, most of them unarmed, are set to be deployed across the country to help police officers enforce the government’s partial lockdown, the government said Monday… Following a number of deliberations on the matter, the government decided that the soldiers will not carry weapons, except for commanding officers and those serving in West Bank settlements.”

“The unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Naqab/Negev in southern Israel are facing a crisis in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, say residents and activists. Due to the lack of infrastructure and health services, the communities are unable to follow the guidance set out by the Israeli Health Ministry. Attiah al-Aasem, chair of the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab, warns that ‘the coronavirus will worsen the day-to-day problems in the villages.’ In the absence of utilities such as water, sewage, and garbage collection, residents are having to do their best to look after themselves, al-Aasem adds. ‘The Naqab is liable to become like northern Italy,’ says Salame Alatrash, head of the Al-Kasom Regional Council.

“The first drive-in testing site for coronavirus opened Monday for the Arab speaking community.”

“Israel’s defence ministry plans to use software that analyses data gathered from mobile phones – produced, according to Israeli media, by the spyware firm NSO – to help locate likely carriers of the coronavirus in order to test them, reports Reuters. Defence Minister Naftali Bennett told reporters that the “coronameter” would need approval from the cabinet – likely to be given – as well as an assessment of privacy issues from the attorney general, who has the power to block it. But it could be operational within 48 hours of getting the go-ahead.”

“Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Chief of the IDF General Staff, along with Home Front Command head Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai and Operations Directorate commander Gen. Aharon Haliva, have gone into isolation. All three attended a meeting ten days ago in which a commander in the reserves, who later tested positive for the coronavirus, participated.”

“Arab MK Sami Abu Shehadeh warned on Sunday of an imminent humanitarian crisis in occupied West Bank and Gaza in the wake of the outbreak of coronavirus, Arab48 reported. Shehadeh, who is a member of Balad (the National Democratic Assembly), outlined his warning in a letter sent to the Israeli ministries of health and internal security as well as to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories…He pointed out that the health of Palestinians is the responsibility of Israel as stipulated in international law, noting that the Israeli occupation and the siege have undermined the development of Palestine’s healthcare service.”

“The coronavirus crisis is also having an impact on the security front: A video of an IDF soldier spitting on the ground while on patrol in the Hebron area over the weekend has made the rounds in the Palestinian territories, sparking a wave of rumors and allegations that the Israeli army is infecting the Palestinians with the virus…The story spread throughout the Palestinian territories and on Sunday Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said: “Some of the soldiers are trying to spread viruses on car windshields and this stems from racist education and being taught to hate. These are people who wish for the deaths of others. Shtayyeh called on Palestinian laborers to avoid working in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, because, in his words, they are illegal and ridden with diseas…” Also see: Danon: UN must condemn Palestinian charge that IDF is spreading COVID-19

“The Foreign Ministry briefed foreign ambassadors to Israel about efforts to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority on fighting the novel coronavirus in a video conference on Tuesday.” Also see: US: Coronavirus cooperation proof Israeli-Palestinian peace talks possible

“Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has said that $120 million will be needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories. Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah yesterday the former Chairman of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction provided an update on the spread of the pandemic and his government’s effort to deal with the crisis. The number of cases in the Palestinian territories on Sunday rose to 108 after two new cases were recorded in the city of Hebron. Among the infected cases were nine in the Gaza Strip. Sketching details of the foreign assistance in dealing with the pandemic Shtayyeh said that the Palestinian Authority is awaiting the arrival of medical aid from China to fill the shortfall in testing kits and respiratory devices.”

“The Palestinian Authority has warned it will be short of equipment to handle the coronavirus pandemic in the West Bank if the spread of the illness is not curbed. Palestinian and Israeli medical sources told Haaretz that West Bank hospitals have 205 ventilating machines at their disposal to serve a population of 2.5 million people, and that as of Friday they had done corona tests on only 5,562 people due to a shortage of diagnostic kits….Palestinian sources told Haaretz that most of the patients diagnosed in recent days are workers returning from jobs in Israel or in settlements. They expressed concern about seeing a possible outbreak in villages in zones B and C where PA operations are limited.”

“The occupied West Bank city of Hebron has announced a full lockdown until further notice to prevent the spread of the Covid-19, after three people were tested positive for the deadly disease.‘Based on the latest developments in the health situation and in order to combat this pandemic and reduce the spread of the coronavirus, it has been decided to take precautionary and preventive measures in Hebron as of Monday, March 30, 2020 and until further notice,’ said governor Jibrin Bakri in a statement. The three new cases in Hebron were confirmed on Sunday.”

“Postal banks in the Gaza Strip began distributing the latest installment of small grants from Qatar on Tuesday morning to impoverished Palestinian families, Palestinian news sites based in the coastal enclave reported. In the past year, the banks have distributed such Qatari grants several times to tens of thousands of needy families in the small territory. Doha has agreed to provide the grants to poor families in Gaza as part of ceasefire understandings between Israel and terror groups in the Strip, including Hamas.”

“Gaza’s rulers set to build 2 massive isolation facilities, hoping to prevent COVID-19 from spreading and overwhelming the broken health system in the Strip, where 2 million people squeezed into an area twice the size of Washington, D.C.”

“The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip began on March 18 placing patients with respiratory diseases in Gaza schools that the UNRWA converted into medical clinics. This followed its March 16 decision not to receive such patients in its medical clinics as a preventive measure to ensure the safety of other patients and families and to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus…Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health began on March 15 turning two schools in the southern city of Rafah into quarantine centers where those entering Gaza are placed as a precautionary measure against spreading the coronavirus. Although such a measure has angered citizens, the ministry said it had no other choice and carried on with equipping other schools as well. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, said there are 15 schools serving as quarantine centers in the Gaza Strip, and the ministry is equipping more schools for those arriving into Gaza.”

“The Director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, Matthias Schmale, said on Sunday that the worst scenario is the spread of coronavirus in a fully besieged Gaza. ‘We are very worried about the outbreak of the coronavirus because managing the crisis then would be very difficult,’ Schmale told Sky News Arabic. He stressed the importance and necessity of lifting the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza since 2007. ‘We need equipment such as respirators, personal protection kit and more staff.’ The UNRWA official condemned as ‘illogical’ the thinking that Gaza is somehow separate to the rest of the world. Everyone, he pointed out, has to take measures to lift the siege. ‘For many of the people here, Gaza has not been liveable for a long time,’ explained Schmale. ‘People do not have jobs, medicines or anything. They depend on UNRWA’s food packages.’”

“…At least 190 people were shot dead over months of weekly protests, including at least 68 on 14 May 2018, when thousands of people in Gaza protested against the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. On the second anniversary of the start of those protests, and with the situation in Gaza more desperate than ever and complicated by the spreading coronavirus pandemic, English, now 87, has decided to speak out for the first time. The British surgeon is sufficiently well connected to have had a chance to raise his concerns privately with senior UK government ministers in recent years. Yet nothing has come of his efforts, he said. ‘Gaza now presents a critical humanitarian crisis.’”