Kfar Gaza, a community located just a few kilometres from the Gaza Strip, has seen emergency situations before but the outbreak of COVID-19 is now presenting new challenges, the primary one being a full lockdown, set to be imposed on Monday.
Only a month ago Kfar Gaza, a southern Israeli community located just five kilometres from the Gaza Strip, was associated with rockets emanating from the enclave and the resilience of its residents who chose to stay in the area despite the constant threat of terror.
Now, however, with the coronavirus raging and the town declared a red-zone, meaning the number of infections there has reached alarming levels, the tiny southern community is on the verge of a full lockdown starting Monday.
On Thursday, Israel's coronavirus cabinet, established with the aim of tackling the crisis, ruled that towns and cities labelled as red will also need to shut down their public institutions, including schools, leaving only “essential businesses” open.
The new regulations also stipulate that residents will be asked to stay indoors and will be banned from going beyond a 500-metre radius set by the cabinet. But the final decision about whether a lockdown will be imposed is slated to occur on Sunday.
‘We Deserved It'
For Or Bar-Ilan, a native of the community, these measures make perfect sense, primarily because they could force residents to behave responsibly. “We deserved it. Now, when the situation is acute, people adhere to the regulations but until…