The winter rains of this week - they are expected to end tomorrow - have raised the level of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) by one centimeter, for an increase of 1.7 million cubic meters of sweet water. The Kinneret, Israel's largest reservoir, now stands at 210.96 meters below sea level - about halfway between the red-line minimum and the optimum level. Gal Yitzchaki of the Kinneret Water Authority told Arutz-7's Tamar Leshem that this is the first time that the lake has risen with the first rains. Generally, he said, the first rains are absorbed by the earth and do not affect the water level.