Israel to close its overland border crossings from Thursday pm

Two days after shutting Ben Gurion international airport, Interior Minister Aryeh Der’I in Wednesday decreed the closure of Israel’s Jordan River, Taba and Arava border crossings to the Hashemite Kingdom from Thursday, Jan. 28 at 06.00 IT. The Allenby Bridge terminal will remain open for West Bank Palestinian residents to cross to and from Jordan. PM Binyamin Netanyahu, on a visit to the Sderot vaccination center, said that these measures were taken in view of the unbridled spread of the British coronavirus variant. He planned to ask the cabinet meeting on Thursday to extend the current lockdown until infection starts falling , despite objections from his coalition Kahol Lavan partners.

The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported a slight downturn in new cases – 7,737, although positive tests were still a high 9.6pc  The death toll on Tuesday rose by 48 to 4,513; the hospitals were struggling to care for 1,141 seriously ill patients, including 311 on ventilators, numbers which stubbornly refuse to fall.