As Israelis woke up to a new day on Thursday, news headlines flashed grim reports of the new strict lockdown beginning on Friday.

Other news reports spoke about the overload in Israel’s hospitals and the shortage of medical staff to tend to seriously ill patients.

The Finance Ministry warned that a three-week lockdown will cost the economy NIS 35 billion (($10.06 billion). Israeli’s Employment Service stated on Thursday that over 120,000 new job seekers were registered with the service during the past week, raising the total number of registered job seekers to 854,000.

Amid the grim statistics, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett posted a heartwarming photo on Twitter on Thursday, writing: “I’m in love with my nation.”

The photo, taken at the AllStock supermarket in the city of Charish on Thursday morning, shows a handwritten sign on a supermarket shelf, stating: “Whoever needs food during these difficult days is welcome to take it for free. There’s no need to notify the staff.”

אני מאוהב בעם שלי.

*צולם כרגע בסופרמרקט AllStock בעיר חריש. שאלוהים יברך אתכם. pic.twitter.com/EC5ydxFU7X

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) September 24, 2020

“Hashem should bless you,” Bennett wrote.

During the first lockdown in Israel, there was another heartwarming report about a young 20-something Israeli who works as a cashier in a supermarket earning minimum wage.

When a woman he was checking out was about to put back some groceries after she realized she didn’t have enough money to pay for everything, the cashier concocted a story about a generous donor who likes to help people out and checked all her products through the cash register. As soon as she was out of sight, he took out his credit card and paid for the groceries himself.

A relative found out about it and contacted an Israeli TV channel who interviewed the young man. When he was asked how he could pay for her groceries on his minumum wage salary, he anwered simply: “I saw that all her groceries were products she really needed like diapers and basic food items. How could I not help her out?”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)