Israel’s Supreme Court is due to hear a challenge Thursday by civil liberties activists to the Health Ministry’s use of cyber-surveillance to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. The surveillance technology, normally employed by the Shin Bet security agency to track suspected terrorists, is now being used to track coronavirus carriers and alert those to whom they have been exposed. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned in a televised interview on Wednesday that the country would face a government-enforced lockdown if citizens don’t comply with the current guidelines to stay home in an effort to limit the spread of the virus. “Yesterday we gave clear instructions … asking people to stay at home as much as they can and to go outside only when it’s vital, for food supplies and other such needs we specified,” Netanyahu said. The prime minister referred specifically to Israel’s Arab and ultra-Orthodox Jewish minorities as populations that have tended to ignore the government’s recommendations. “If the message is not understood, then I will not hesitate to impose an order,” he said. The Health Ministry has limited gatherings to 10 people at most, and a ban on entry to the country by foreigners was imposed on Wednesday. Israel has had 529 confirmed COVID-19 cases to date. This number is expected to rise by “many hundreds of new patients each day, and possibly more,” according to Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov. Of these 529, 13 patients have fully recovered and six are in serious or critical condition. The country has had no reported deaths from COVID-19. Israel’s rate of infection stands at 61 per million. In the Palestinian territories, health officials confirm 47 cases of coronavirus infection in the West Bank and none in the Gaza Strip, with an overall rate of 9 cases per million.