The government convened on Sunday night to approve the extension of the lockdown, according to a report by Haaretz.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the heads of the Health Ministry want to extend the closure for a week until next Sunday at midnight, while Benny Gantz and the ministers of his party want to end the lockdown this Wednesday so that the economy can be opened as early as Thursday.
According to the report, Netanyahu said: "In the last few days, I have held discussions with the health and education ministers to allow for a gradual opening in the coming days of the education system, starting with early childhood education and lower grades, and of course up to 11th-12th graders.
Netanyahu added that within a week about a million more vaccines would arrive and people aged 50 and over would be vaccinated and asks the general public maintain COVID guidelines: "Let it be clear - a gathering is a gathering. It doesn't matter if it is ultra-Orthodox, secular or Arab. We need to stop this immediately and stop making politics out of it."