Israel to impose weekend lockdowns amid reluctance to damage economy with major restrictions

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is to impose weekend lockdowns as part of a delicate balancing act between fighting coronavirus and protecting the country's ailing economy. 

Shopping centres, markets, barbers, beauty parlors, libraries, zoos, museums, exhibition spaces, pools and tourist sites will shut down at 5pm on Friday and reopen from 5am on Sunday, under the proposals.

“The alternative to the steps we [want to] take today is significantly more difficult steps tomorrow, which we are trying to avoid,” Mr Netanyahu said as he unveiled the new measures.

“Within three weeks we’ll be at 1,600 [people] in serious condition if we continue down this path without new restrictions,” he added. “If we don’t flatten the curve, we’re putting many Israelis in danger.”

Israel is suffering from a severe second wave of coronavirus, reporting up to 1,800 cases per day. But ministers have been hugely reluctant to reimpose a full lockdown as the economy has already been severely affected, with unemployment at an unprecedented level of 20 per cent.

A poll this week by Channel 13 found that 61 percent of voters were "displeased" by Mr Netanyahu's handling of the crisis, which is a dramatic reversal in fortune for the prime minister, whose response early on in the pandemic won praise.

After his government curbed flights and imposed lockdown measures in March, Israel briefly reduced its daily tally of newly confirmed cases to the single digits in early May, but in recent weeks new cases have regularly topped 1,000 per day.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, 57.5 percent of the public supported Mr Netanyahu's coronavirus management at the beginning of April. As of July 12, that number had fallen to 29.5 percent.