Israel Reopens Education System on Thursday

Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray at a playground next to their homes as they wear protective face masks help curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Bnei Brak, Israel, Thursday, July 2, 2020.  (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray at a playground next to their homes as they wear protective face masks help curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Bnei Brak, Israel, Thursday, July 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
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Israel Reopens Education System on Thursday

Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray at a playground next to their homes as they wear protective face masks help curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Bnei Brak, Israel, Thursday, July 2, 2020.  (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray at a playground next to their homes as they wear protective face masks help curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Bnei Brak, Israel, Thursday, July 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israel began reopening its education system on Thursday after a more than six-week closure due to the country’s worrying surge in coronavirus infections.

Kindergartens and first to fourth grades opened in cities with low infection rates, with around one-fifth of the country’s pupils returning to classrooms.

Middle schools and high schools remained closed.

Israel began easing restrictions on Sunday after more than a month of nationwide lockdown, The Associated Press reported.

It has vaccinated more than 3.5 million citizens with an initial dose of the Pfizer vaccine, but infection rates remain high.

The Health Ministry reported more than 711,000 confirmed cases, including at least 5,265 deaths.



Iran Denies Targeting Ex-US officials

25 September 2024, US, Cherokee: Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally inside the Mosack Group manufacturing warehouse in Mint Hill. Photo: Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
25 September 2024, US, Cherokee: Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally inside the Mosack Group manufacturing warehouse in Mint Hill. Photo: Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Iran Denies Targeting Ex-US officials

25 September 2024, US, Cherokee: Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally inside the Mosack Group manufacturing warehouse in Mint Hill. Photo: Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
25 September 2024, US, Cherokee: Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally inside the Mosack Group manufacturing warehouse in Mint Hill. Photo: Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Iran said on Thursday that accusations it had targeted former US officials were baseless, after former US president Donald Trump implicated Iran, without offering evidence, in assassination attempts against him.
"It is obvious that such accusations are just a part of creating the election atmosphere in the US...., and not even worth a response," Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.
Trump, the Republican candidate to return to the presidency, said on Wednesday Iran may have been behind recent attempts to assassinate him and suggested that if he were president and another country threatened a US presidential candidate, it risked being "blown to smithereens.”
"There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran, but I don’t really know," Trump said at an event a pipe-fittings plant in Mint Hill, North Carolina.
Trump made his remarks after US intelligence officials briefed him a day earlier on "real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him," according to his campaign.
Federal authorities are probing assassination attempts targeting Trump at his Florida golf course in mid-September and at a rally in Pennsylvania in July. There has been no public suggestion by law enforcement agencies of involvement by Iran or any other foreign power in either incident.