No IDF soldier will be able to leave Israel starting at noon on Friday in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman announced Thursday. The decision was made by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi in accordance with the Health Ministry’s guidelines and following a situational assessment with the military’s General Staff. Zilberman said that Kochavi decided to take a strict approach to reduce the number of soldiers with the virus in order to maintain the IDF’s operational readiness, which is essential to the security of the State of Israel. “We have three main tasks,” he said. “Maintaining operational readiness, reducing the spread of the virus and preparing to help out on a national scale-which is not happening at this time.” But, Zilberman said, “I want to be careful with spreading rumors. Another situational assessment will take place this evening. All information and decisions taken are continuously updated on the IDF website twice daily,” including the number of soldiers quarantined. According to Zilberman, between 500-600 soldiers are currently in quarantine and should any soldier need to be placed in quarantine, the health ministry would be contacted right away. As of Thursday, 15 Israelis have been diagnosed with the virus including one soldier and some 60,000-70,000 Israelis are in quarantine. In addition to preventing all IDF personnel from travelling abroad, all joint military drills – in Israel and abroad – have been cancelled. A committee formed by the military may permit some exceptions to the ban on a case-by-case basis such as specific operational trips abroad or for troops who need to leave the country for pressing medical or family reasons. The General Staff will hold an additional evaluation this evening to discuss additional stricter guidelines, including limiting conducting troop training sessions; requiring people to fill out medical screening questions prior to entering military facilities; purchasing specialized equipment; limiting conferences and ceremonies and limiting contact in command centers and headquarters. The military said that Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Eyal Zamir will coordinate the IDF’s response to the virus along with the Operations Directorate led by Maj.-Gen. Aaron Haliva who is in quarantine following a trip to Italy, the Medical Corps and the Homefront Command which works closely with civilian emergency response services. The IDF’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) also announced on Thursday that they have been helping the Palestinian healthcare system in the effort to curb the spread of the virus in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to a statement, 250 coronavirus test kits have been transferred from Israel to the PA and joint training sessions for both Israeli and Palestinian medical personnel have been organized for the professional study of the virus, the protection of medical personnel, and the testing of patients suspected of being virus carriers. In addition, COGAT has made available to the Palestinian public through its digital platform – the unit’s website and Arabic language social media pages (Al-Munassiq) – the Israeli health ministry guidelines on preventing the spreading of the virus as well as ways to deal with an outbreak. “COGAT will continue to cooperate closely with the PA to curb the spread of the coronavirus in coordination with the Israeli authorities, especially the Health Ministry and Magen David Adom,” the statement read. “Bacteria and viruses do not stop at the border, and the spread of the dangerous virus in the West Bank can also jeopardize the health of the residents of Israel,” said Civil Administration Health Coordinator Dalia Basa. “COGAT and the Health Ministry will continue working to help the Palestinian authorities curb the spread of the virus in the territories, both as an Israeli interest and for humanitarian reasons. We will expand medical training to Palestinian personnel as much as possible, as well as the transfer of medical equipment to the Palestinian healthcare system.” Israel’s Health Ministry on Wednesday issued new instructions and warnings to both citizens and visitors to the country to prevent the spread of Covid-19, including several European countries including Germany, Austria and Italy on the list of countries from which people arriving in the country must be quarantined for 14 days. The Health Ministry also recommended that citizens refrain from traveling abroad due to the virus and on Wednesday night, the IDF announced that Kochavi was postponing a scheduled trip to the United States due to Health Ministry recommendations against traveling abroad. All decisions made by Kochavi regarding the prevention of corona was approved by Defense Minister Naftali Bennett. Due to the continued spread of the virus, Bennett held a meeting with security and health officials regarding the possible transition to epidemic status involving the transfer of incident management to the security establishment. The meeting was attended by the defense minister, deputy defense minister, Health Ministry director-general, Defense Ministry director-general, deputy chief of staff, commander of the Home Front, representatives of the National Security Office (NGO), MPS, the Land Crossing Authority and more. As of March 5, Israel’s Health Ministry is leading the charge in combating the coronavirus. But as part of a government decision from January 2002, the overall responsibility for dealing with pandemic events with a high death rate rests with the defense minister, who coordinates the matter with the cabinet. The defense ministry started that while the discussion was held on Thursday morning, it was only a discussion of preparations for an extreme scenario. Also on Thursday, President Reuven Rivlin visited IDF Central Command headquarters in Jerusalem escorted by GOC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Nadav Padan, commander of the Judea and Samaria Brigade Brig.-Gen Yaniv Alalouf and staff from Central Command. “According to the instructions of the commanders of the war against coronavirus at the Health Ministry, we will avoid shaking hands as much as possible,” Rivlin said. “Since we are in the army, we can salute without any difficulty. Health Minister [Ya’acov] Litzman is the commander-in-chief when it comes to Corona. He decided that we don’t shake hands and we follow his orders.”
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