Israel to give coronavirus vaccines to Palestinians for front-line medical workers

Israel on January 30 agreed to donate 5,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the Palestinians to vaccinate the essential healthcare workers, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s office said in a statement. The decision came after the Israeli government learned that Palestine has received no vaccines, while Israel launched a rigorous mass inoculation program. While World Health Organization (WHO) stated that Israel was responsible for the health of the Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel denied responsibility, citing interim peace agreements from the 1990s that evicted the country of any responsibility for Palestinians. The Israeli government, however, stated that no help from the Palestinian side was sought from the Israeli administration. The country, despite differences, approved the transfer of vaccines. 

Palestine, according to Arab News, has been trying to procure the shipment of the vaccines under the WHO’s COVAX initiative. But the country has been unable to procure any doses due to the sluggish rollout as a result of a surge in demands. Earlier, at a G20 summit, French President Emmanuel Macron had stressed that the globe must create a system that includes disturbing first doses of potential coronavirus vaccines to “least developed countries”. The world’s 20 biggest economies debated about how to make the therapeutic drugs, COVID-19 vaccines, and the tests available to the poorest nations, such as Palestine.

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 1.7 million Israelis vaccinated

“We need to avoid at all costs a scenario of a two-speed world where only the richer can protect themselves against the virus and restart normal lives," Macron said in a televised conference, raising concerns. WHO, meanwhile,  appealed for investing more funds into the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator of WHO’s COVAX initiative. European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen called for ‘global solidarity’ for the vaccines. Israel struck an agreement with Pfizer and Moderna for the procurement of the vials for its 9.3 million population. As many as 1.7 million Israelis have already been administered with 2 doses, according to the state-run press. The vaccination drive included Israel's Arab citizens and Palestinians in the annexed east Jerusalem but excluded West Bank and Gaza Strip due to the Palestinian government’s authority and Hamas rule in the region. 

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