Israel, Palestinians to cooperate on preventing local Ebola outbreak
Netanyahu says 'Israel prepared to stop people infected with Ebola from entering'; after Israeli, Palestinians official meet, decide Israel will train Palestinian, Jordanian medical teams to fight virus.
Israel and Palestinian officials met Saturday to discuss ways of preventing the deadly Ebola virus from wreaking havoc in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, deciding would train Palestinian and Jordanian medical crews to fight the virus.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with government and health officials about the virus, saying "Israel is prepared to do everything possible to prevent Ebola victims from entering the country; it is part of our overall effort to protect our borders."
According to the prime minister, "this is a global epidemic" and Israel was working with other nations to prevent its spreading. Apparently, that also includes the Palestinian Authority.
Saturday saw representatives from the PA and Israel meet over the issue and decide to expand their cooperation if the virus should hit the region.
"During the meeting, the parties committed to meeting again to share new information about the Ebola virus," said a statement from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
Among other possible cooperation, the two sides decided Israel would train Palestinian and Jordanian crews to deal with the virus. Last week, Israel decided to send to medical crews to Western Africa to help the international effort against the deadly disease.
No cases of Ebola have been reported in Israel since the beginning of the epidemic. A Nigerian tourist who had suspicious symptoms was briefly hospitalized in September in Jerusalem, but it was a false alarm.
Israel is a popular destination for Christian pilgrims, also from Africa, and approximately 43,000 African tourists (including North Africa) visited Israel since the beginning of 2014, according to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.
Moreover tens of thousands of Palestinian Muslims visited Mecca for the pilgrimage of Hajj, which this year was held with strict measures to prevent the spread of Ebola.
Attila Somfalvi, Telem Yahav, Maya Mahler, Daniel Batini and AFP contributed to this report
