Cabinet to meet later this week to decide how to proceed, as Health Ministry pushes to keep restrictions in place; 44 new fatalities reported over weekend

Ex-virus czar says with a quarter of population having received 1st shot, country seeing clear evidence vaccine is working; number of seriously ill over 60 drops sharply

With Pfizer to ship millions of doses from Sunday, Israel will be first in world out of pandemic, PM says; will share data with firm, acting as 'model country' for global strategy

Yuli Edelstein fumes after Ichilov vaccinates thousands of teaching staff, many below 60 and not in risk groups; hospital chief says rules were followed, didn't want to waste doses

Channel 12's 'Uvda' followed Ronni Gamzu as he fought to build coherent national virus policy. He now says Israel's politicians are 'cowards' who often chose optics over substance

Liora Valinsky says army operation to cut chain of infection is weak, unprofessional, ineffective and sending thousands into quarantine for no good reason

Ze'ev Elkin says he's uneasy that mayors, ministers, MKs and chief rabbi are getting the shot before at-risk populations; Rivlin, 81, gets inoculation, vouches for its safety

But two of main candidates in yet-to-be formed faction flatly deny unsourced TV report, which claims party would take away seats from Bennett and be willing to sit with Netanyahu

Ronni Gamzu expects massive production in various countries to produce enough immunization units during first half of 2021

PM says all legal impediments to deal removed, he's also working on securing immunizations from other sources; outgoing virus czar predicts vaccines won't arrive before March