Prime Minister Naftali Bennett convened a press conference Tuesday evening following the dramatic rise in morbidity, and promised: "We will get through this together."
In a statement at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, Bennett said: "We are facing a wave of infection that has hit the whole world, one that is more contagious than all the previous strains combined. The numbers are at a level we haven't seen before. Several million Israeli citizens are going to be infected, but we are managing this crisis consistently.
"The economy is as open as far as is possible and continues to function. We do not want people to lose their jobs or to see businesses close down. Not everyone can work from home, and people are going to have to quarantine - therefore all workers in the economy will be paid compensation from the first day of self-isolation," the prime minister promised.
Bennett criticized journalists who have been critical of his conduct: "Those studios that now broadcast complete hysteria called me hysterical a few weeks ago - when I predicted exactly what was going to happen and set about preparing the country.
"We are protecting the at-risk groups - we have brought in drugs from Merck and Pfizer on a much larger scale than anywhere in the rest of the world. 400,000 people have already been vaccinated with a fourth vaccine dose and this is a unique achievement in the world - no country protects its elderly better than Israel."