Israel transferred today 2,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Pfizer-made vaccine doses were delivered through the Betunia trade crossing point in the southwest of Ramallah in the West Bank. A second delivery of 3,000 doses is expected in the coming days, with both deliveries destined for Palestinian health-care workers. It was the first time Israel handed over to the Palestinians significant coronavirus vaccines from its own supply.
Last December, shortly before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a mass vaccination drive, Palestinian senior officials said they did not approach Israel for help in obtaining vaccines. An unnamed official at the Palestinian Ministry of Health was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying, “We are working on our own to obtain the vaccine from a number of sources. We are not a department in the Israeli Defense Ministry. We have our own government and Ministry of Health, and they are making huge efforts to get the vaccine.”
Reportedly, the Palestinians have been focusing their efforts on obtaining the Russian Sputnik vaccine and the Chinese-made vaccine. In parallel, they are hoping for aid from the internationally backed mechanism COVAX, designed to provide developing countries with coronavirus health care and vaccination doses. Plans are for COVAX to provide doses to immunize around 20% of the Palestinian population, though it is now clear that deliveries will not arrive to the West Bank before March. The Palestinian Health Ministry has also announced recently it had signed a contract with AstraZeneca pharmaceutical firm. A first shipment is expected at the end of February at the earliest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had offered the PA some 5,000 doses as a personal gift. Israel had authorized the transfer of the Russian doses, which were expected to arrive last week at Ben Gurion Airport, to be transferred to the West Bank by truck. Eventually, the shipment was delayed, reportedly due to technical problems, with no new delivery date in sight. Thus, the cash-stripped PA was left with no vaccines at all. Israel, for its part, has advanced rapidly with its mass-vaccination campaign. Close to 3 million people (32% of Israel’s population) have now received the first dose of the vaccine, and 1.7 million people (almost 19% of the population) have received the second dose. Israel has also vaccinated some of its citizens living in West Bank settlements.
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