Israel has postponed the next hearing in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial due to a tightened coronavirus lockdown that started Friday.

The Jerusalem District Court said the hearing scheduled for Wednesday would be deferred indefinitely because of the number of people required to attend in person. Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust connected to three long-running investigations. He has denied any wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a “witch hunt” by hostile media, law enforcement and judicial officials.

In recent months he has faced weekly protests calling on him to resign over the allegations and the govt’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Israel has seen a recent surge in cases despite unleashing one of the world's fastest vaccination campaigns. The country has given the first of two vaccine doses to nearly 20 pc of its population, and Netanyahu said Thursday that it has secured enough vaccines to inoculate the whole adult population by the end of March.

In the meantime, he has called on Israelis to make “one last big effort” to halt transmission by adhering to the tightened restrictions. Israel has reported 4,74,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, including 3,565 deaths. It currently has over 60,000 active cases, and officials had warned that without the tightened lockdown its medical facilities could be overwhelmed.

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