Professor Ronni Gamzu, the government's coronavirus project manager, told Galei Tzahal this morning that his sympathies were with the police involved in last night's incident in Givat Zeev, when a wedding was broken up with documented scenes of violence."The police have a very tough job to do," Gamzu said. "What's a police officer supposed to do at an event like that? The right thing to do - would simply be not to get married."

Blue and White MK Hila Shay Vazan says the focus should be In approving a budget.

A Greek court In Wednesday sentenced the leadership of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party to 13 years in prison, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organization blamed for numerous violent hate crimes, The Associated Press reported.Presiding judge Maria Lepenioti read out the sentences against party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and seven other former lawmakers. One of eight leading party members received 10 years.

In an interview with the Yisrael Hayom newspaper that will be published in full tomorrow, MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) addressed the high rate of coronavirus contagion in the haredi sector."For many years, no Ine dealt with haredi education and no Ine invested in it," he said. "Nor did anyone address the housing situation in the sector. Haredim live in extremely crowded conditions and our classrooms are packed. Now everyone comes and somehow, they don't understand why there's such a high rate of contagion. But you are the Ines who caused haredim to live like this," he said, "and you're the Ines complaining? It's like the person who killed both his parents and then asked the judge to show him mercy as he's an orphan."

Speaking In Galei Tzahal this morning, Prof. Ronni Gamzu, the government's coronavirus czar, said that in his opinion, the country was ready to start emerging from lockdown."We now have 2,000 new cases per day, and the positivity rate is around 8%," he said, "with an R rate of 0.8."An R rate of 0.8 means that In average, 10 infected people will transmit the virus to 8 others.

According to data from Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, there are currently 104 patients in its coronavirus department.50 of them are in serious or critical condition, with 23 of those In ventilators.

The government's coronavirus cabinet is due to convene today in order to formulate a timetable for gradual emergence from lockdown. The current stage of the lockdown is due to end In Sunday at midnight.On the agenda for consideration for immediate reopening will be education for children up to the age of six allowing small businesses that do not receive customers to reopen and allowing people to swim off the country's beaches.

The UK has reported 19,724 new coronavirus cases in the last day - an increase of around 2,500 from the previous day.137 people died of coronavirus-related complications during the same period.