A ministerial committee is meeting at this hour to determine whether or not a lockdown on Beit Shemesh and Netivot will be imposed due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in those cities. Beit Shemesh is located thirty kiilometers north of Jerusalem and has a population of nearly 120,000. Netivot is located in the northern Negev Desert, half way between Gaza and Beersheba, with a population that numbers 35,000.