Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that helps North Americans immigrate to Israel, reported that they received the highest number of applications since its founding 18 years ago, JTA reported last week. Over 900 applications were submitted to the organization in the first half of June, versus 399 in June 2019. Nefesh B’Nefesh has arranged 14 group flights of North American Jews making aliyah this summer, in coordination with the Jewish Agency, Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (KKL) and JNF-USA, and signed a contract with El Al to operate the group flights. Immigration Minister Penina Tamanu-Shata told the Knesset earlier this month that there will be a surge of aliyah to Israel due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A fire broke out early Thursday at a building above Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, though officials said it did not affect its centrifuge operation or cause any release of radiation. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran sought to downplay the fire, calling it an “incident” that only affected an under-construction “industrial shed,” spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. However, both Kamalvandi and Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi rushed after the fire to Natanz, which has been targeted in sabotage campaigns in the past. Kamalvandi did not identify what damaged the building, though Natanz governor Ramazanali Ferdowsi said a “fire” struck the site, according to a report by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

The U.S. Embassy has put the ambassador to Israel’s official residence in Herzliya on sale for the record price of $87 million, the Israeli business daily Globes reported on Monday. If sold at the asking price, it would be the most expensive house in Israel. The sale of the villa is the final step of the US embassy’s move to Jerusalem, since according to the US State Department, most of Ambassador David Friedman’s day-to-day activities are based at the embassy in Jerusalem. “Following the decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem it made sense to sell the residence in Herzliya,” the State Department said.

Israel’s Education Ministry has instructed schools throughout the country to prepare for three potential scenarios for the new school year in September – no lockdown, a total lockdown, or a partial lockdown with both online and in-person educational services, Haaretz reported based on a memo to the schools it obtained. The schools were also instructed to reduce their lesson plans to about 70% of the current lesson plans required by the education ministry in order to allow for potential interruptions to the school year due to upticks in coronavirus cases. The memo, which was written by outgoing Education Ministry Director-General Shmuel Abuhav, was sent to school principals throughout Israel on Tuesday.

An Israeli Arab in Lebanon attempted to recruit Israeli citizens to Hezbollah in order to carry out terrorist activities, the Shin Bet revealed on Tuesday. The Shin Bet discovered that Beirut Hamoud, an Israeli citizen living in Lebanon with her Lebanese husband, Bilal Bizari, has been working for Hezbollah and recruiting Israeli citizens as Hezbollah operatives. Hamoud and Bizari, both journalists for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper, allegedly tried to recruit two female Israeli Arabs from Hamoud’s hometown of Majd al-Krum, a northern Arab town in the Galil. Hamoud met with the two Israeli-Arab women in Turkey in December. In May the women were arrested by Israeli security services and interrogated by the Shin Bet, on suspicion of contact with Hezbollah operatives.

There has been a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in recent days in Ashdod and the city is emerging as Israel’s new coronavirus hotspot, with more new cases since the beginning of the week than Tel Aviv and Bat Yam combined. About 30 students and seven staff members at the Shiloh school in the city tested positive for the virus on Tuesday as well as several students at a Chareidi school. Ashdod recorded 94 new virus cases in the past day alone and now has a total of 764 cases. Jerusalem, with a population four times the size of Ashdod, recorded 120 cases in the past day. Bnei Brak recorded 50 new cases in the past 24 hours and Tel Aviv recorded 46.

Israel’s Health Ministry stated on Wednesday morning that a record number of 859 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, the highest number of daily cases since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Israel. There are currently a total of 25,547 coronavirus cases in Israel, with the number of active cases rising to 7,838. The number of seriously ill patients rose by ten in the past 24 hours to 56, of whom 24 are ventilated. The death toll remains at 320. The head of the Health Ministry’s hospital division, Dr. Erez Onn, told Ynet on Wednesday that there are more and more coronavirus patients being hospitalized every day.

The Health Ministry is pushing for dozens of additional cities and communities to be placed in lockdown in order to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Channel 12 News reported on Tuesday night. The cities of Dimona, Kiryat Gat, Ashdod and Ramle are reportedly on the list for potential lockdowns. If the infection rate in Beitar Illit doesn’t decrease in the coming days it will also reportedly be placed into lockdown as well as the city of Bnei Brak. The potential lockdowns will be stricter than the partial lockdowns imposed in Elad and Kiryat Sanz in Tiveria, which have already been lifted, and in Bat Yam and some areas of Ashdod.

A day after posting a $140 million loss in its first-quarter financial, El Al canceled all its flights until further notice amid heated labor disputes with its pilots’ union, Globes reported on Wednesday. Passenger flights from Paris and New York and four cargo flights scheduled for Wednesday were called off following a statement by the El Al pilots’ union that it would not fly any more flights due to the embattled company’s failure to reach an agreement with the finance ministry for a bailout plan, the report said. The union’s statement followed unsuccessful labor negotiations between the union and El Al on Tuesday night. El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin summoned all of the company’s airplanes to return to Israel and ordered the suspension of all ongoing cargo flights.

In light of the increasing rise of coronavirus cases in Israel, Channel 12 News conducted an investigation to clarify which public places confirmed coronavirus carriers frequented before they were diagnosed, based on data from the epidemiological investigations conducted by the health ministry. Buses were on top of the list. In the past week, 137 confirmed virus carriers were on public buses throughout Israel. For example, four virus carriers traveled on the #3 Egged bus in Netanya in the past week and five virus carriers were on the intercity #619 bus which travels from Ramat HaSharon to Netanya in the past week. Supermarkets were second on the list, with 86 confirmed carriers visiting supermarkets in the past week.