Jerusalem, Sep 30 (IANS): Israel's parliament has handed the government the power to ban mass protests during the country's second nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.

Demonstrators will be confined to groups of up to 20 people and must stay within 1 km (0.6 miles) of their homes.

The law should have been part of a range of measures passed on Friday.

But the government struggled to get the necessary votes after critics accused it of trying to stifle protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, BBC reported.

For weeks, thousands of people have gathered outside his official residence in Jerusalem to demand he resign over corruption allegations and his handling of the pandemic. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.

The protests have continued despite a dramatic resurgence of Covid-19.

Israel currently has the world's highest infection rate per capita, with the daily number of new cases exceeding 8,000 last week despite the second lockdown.

Since the start of the pandemic more than 237,000 cases and 1,528 deaths have been reported in the country, which has a population of nine million.