Tuesday, March 19th | 9 Adar II 5784

Subscribe
June 18, 2021 3:04 pm
0

Palestinians Cancel Deal for 1 Million COVID Vaccines From Israel

× [contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]

avatar by Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

A health worker prepare a vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Gaza City March 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The Palestinian Authority (PA) cancelled a deal on Friday to receive soon-to-expire COVID-19 vaccines from Israel after an initial Israeli shipment showed an expiration date sooner than had been agreed, the PA health minister said.

Israel and the PA announced a vaccine swap deal earlier on Friday that would have seen Israel send up to 1.4 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses to the PA, in exchange for receiving a reciprocal number of doses from the PA later this year.

The doses were due to “expire soon,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said in a statement announcing the deal. The PA said they had been “approved in order to speed up the vaccination process” in the West Bank and Gaza.

“They told us the expiration date was in July or August, which would allow lots of time for use,” PA Health Minister Mai Alkaila told reporters later on Friday.

“But (the expiration) turned out to be in June. That’s not enough time to use them, so we rejected them,” she said.

The PA cancelled the deal over the date issue, a PA spokesman said, and sent the initial shipment of around 90,000 doses back to Israel.

Bennett’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Israeli news site Ynet reported that the doses delivered to the Palestinians on Friday were valid until the end of June or July, with those being sent first due to their earlier expiration date. Future shipments, the outlet said, would have later expiration dates.

Israel’s Army Radio quoted an unnamed Israeli Ministry of Health official, saying, “We don’t understand what they want, the vaccines are fine.”

Some rights groups have criticized Israel, which led one of the world’s swiftest vaccination campaigns, for not doing more to ensure Palestinian access to doses in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli officials argue that under the Oslo peace accords, the PA health ministry is responsible for vaccinating people in Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

The vaccine deal was among initial policy moves towards the Palestinians by Bennett, who was sworn in on Sunday and replaced veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Around 55% of eligible Israelis are fully vaccinated — a coverage rate largely unchanged by this month’s expansion of eligibility to include 12- to 15-year-olds.

Some 30% of eligible Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, home to a combined 5.2 million people, have received at least one vaccine dose, according to Palestinian officials.

According to a poll released on Tuesday by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 40% of Palestinians are willing to take the vaccine once it is available, while 35% say they and their families are not willing to get vaccinated.

The Palestinians have received vaccine doses from Israel, Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates and the global COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative.

Share this Story: Share On Facebook Share On Twitter

Let your voice be heard!

Join the Algemeiner

Algemeiner.com

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.