Israel said on Tuesday February 23 that it would send a “
limited amount
” of “
unused
”
doses of the Covid vaccine
to the Palestinians and to some countries, such as Honduras which plans to open an embassy in Jerusalem.
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Israel, which holds the world record for the number of citizens vaccinated, has already administered the two doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to three million Israelis, almost a third of its population.
The Hebrew state launched a massive and rapid vaccination campaign on December 19 after a deal with Pfizer allowed Israel to quickly obtain millions of doses in exchange for biomedical data on the effect of the vaccine.
"
Israel has received numerous requests for assistance from countries claiming vaccines,
" a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, adding that the Jewish state was unable to provide "
significant
assistance.
Before the end of his vaccination campaign.
But thanks to "
a limited amount of unused vaccines accumulated last month
", Israel decided "
to help medical personnel in the Palestinian Authority and several countries
" by sending them "
a symbolic quantity of vaccines
", adds the press release.
Israel has already sent thousands of doses of vaccine to the occupied West Bank in recent weeks for Palestinian medical personnel in the Palestinian Authority.
According to the UN and NGOs, Israel has an "
obligation
", as an "
occupying
"
power
, to "
provide
" vaccines to the 2.8 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and to the two million inhabitants of the strip of Gaza, under Israeli blockade.
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On the other hand, the Israeli media cited in particular Honduras as a country likely to receive doses of vaccine, this state having announced last year its intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
The prime minister's office declined to comment on the information but a source familiar with the matter told AFP that Honduras would indeed be one of the beneficiary countries.
The United States - under the presidency of Donald Trump - transferred in 2018 its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while the majority of countries do not recognize the Holy City as the capital of Israel, the UN considering that its status should be the subject of an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Hebrew state seized the eastern sector of Jerusalem in 1967, then annexed it and now considers the whole city to be its “
eternal
” and “
indivisible
”
capital
, while the Palestinians want to make Jerusalem- Is the capital of the state to which they aspire.