At least 39 students from Ra'anana in central Israel have tested positive for COVID-19 after taking part in one of numerous illicit high school graduation parties that violate health regulations, as Israel battles with a surging second wave of the pandemic.
The parties are going ahead in secluded nature locations despite the Education Ministry ban on these events.
The graduating students did not maintain any of the health guidelines for social distancing or mask-wearing, in fact "they shared bottles of drink and hugged a lot. They just did not care," said one student.
Students from S.'s school in Modi'in hired a DJ, bought alcohol and went to great lengths to keep the venue a secret.
"They told everyone not to post any pictures on social media so that the police would not get wind of the party and close us down," she said.
"The kids came to let loose, they just wanted to end their school life with a great time."
An illicit high school graduation party
In some places, students themselves alerted authorities to the planned parties and many of the people there were fined by police.
S. described the evening as the last time they would be able to rebel.
"The decision to ban parties was made without hearing any of us out, with no consideration of our feelings, we were ignored so we decided to ignore them and their guidelines," she said.
Parents in some schools firmly clamped down any ideas the kids may have had to hold their own graduation parties.
Limor, whose daughter graduated from a Herzliya high school, said the kids were so disappointed when told they had to cancel their proms.
"The girls bought dresses and had hair and make up [professionals] all lined up so the cancellations were very depressing."
Limor said that some of the students in her daughter's class were enlisting in the IDF within a few days and the party was supposed to be a send-off for them.
"It was really frustrating to not have a proper good bye," she said.
Israel is in the midst of a renewed outbreak of COVID-19, with numbers of new cases exceeding 1,000 on Monday for the second time in one week.
Two Israelis have succumbed to complications of COVID-19 on Monday raising the national death toll from the pathogen to 338.
Among 12,717 patients currently battling the virus, 86 are in serious condition, of which 36 are on ventilators.