Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israel Ramps Up Ebola Border Screenings

Israel will screen travelers from Western African countries in order to prevent the Ebola virus from entering the country.

Travelers arriving from Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, the countries currently most affected by the virus, will be questioned at all border crossings – land, sea and air, according to a statement issued Sunday by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The statement was released after a Sunday morning meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on the Ebola crisis, attended by officials from the Health, Transportation, Interior and Justice Ministries, as well as officials from the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police, and airport authority.

“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,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “This is a global epidemic and we are cooperating with other countries and, in addition to protecting our borders, we are taking a series of steps to isolate patients, if they come, and of course to treat them in our healthcare systems. We hope there will be no need for it, but we are prepared for all scenarios.”

Israeli and Palestinian Authority representatives met on Saturday night to discuss ways to cooperation to prevent Ebola from spreading to the area, and on areas of cooperation should the disease hit either population. Future meetings reportedly are scheduled.

The new screening guidelines come as a second Ebola victim has been identified in the United States, a healthcare worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for an Ebola patient who died in the hospital last week.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.