Israel is to impose its second coronavirus lockdown starting on Friday afternoon and lasting through the entire three-week Jewish High Holiday.
Following hours of heated debate, Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet voted in favour of the drastic measure, which starts with the Jewish New Year on September 18 and ends with the Tabernacles holiday on October 9.
"This is the moment to act," Netanyahu told a news conference in Jerusalem on Sunday.
"The decision has been approved by a majority of votes in the cabinet," he said. "I am asking of Israel's citizens to accept it too."
Ministers who voted in favour of the measure fear that the virus could otherwise spread through large family gatherings for the New Year's dinner, mass prayers on the Day of Atonement and huddling together in small huts or booths for the Tabernacles holiday.
Israel imposed its first lockdown in mid-March, then eased the measure in May, and has since seen a second wave of coronavirus infections.
The daily rate of new cases crossed the 4,000 on Thursday for the first time since the pandemic reached the country in February.
Israelis will be forced to remain within 500 metres of their homes, Netanyahu said.
Schools will be closed and businesses shuttered to customers.
Supermarkets, pharmacies, and restaurant deliveries will continue to operate. Gatherings will be restricted to up to 10 people indoors and up to 20 people outdoors.
"I know these steps are a heavy price for us all.
"These are not the holidays we are used to," Netanyahu said, before taking off to Washington to sign historic peace treaties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House on Tuesday.
A minister of an ultra-Orthodox coalition party resigned earlier on Sunday in anger over severe prayer limitations in synagogues during the holidays and especially on the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
Ministers opposed to the second lockdown said it would be a "catastrophe" for Israel's economy, with hundreds of thousands more unemployed.
But Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, of Netanyahu's Likud party, said "we had no choice."
Voices were also raised during the stormy cabinet debate over whether weekly protests against Netanyahu should be curtailed.
So far, Israel has recorded 1,103 Covid-19-related deaths since the pandemic reached the country of 9.2 million in February.
Of almost 154,000 total cases, nearly 115,000 have fully recovered. Just over 38,000 cases remain active, of whom 139 are on respirators.
Australian Associated Press
