Not a complete shutdown, but for those accustomed to the bustling streets and beaches of Tel Aviv, the pace has ground to a relative halt.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Israeli government has imposed a mandatory 7-day quarantine, with one of the few exceptions being brief periods of outdoor physical activity. Supermarkets and pharmacies remain open, and citizens engaged in work deemed essential continue to operate largely uninhibited.
Still, the closure of businesses, lack of traffic, and the growing presence of face masks, has created an unprecedented situation in a country that has had its fair share of war — just never against an invisible enemy.
As such, there are concerns Israelis are not taking the restrictions seriously, prompting the deployment of police to enforce directives. This comes as health officials on Monday raised the country’s confirmed number of cases of COVID-19 – the disease caused by the pathogen – to at least 1,238.
The Media Line explored the possibility that dire warnings continue to go unheeded, including one from an Israeli woman living in Italy who was appalled by the behavior of her countrymen.