It must have been a gesture of appeasement. It has just been swept away. The Palestinian Authority on Friday canceled an agreement with Israel to transfer one million doses of coronavirus vaccine, saying it was refusing to receive doses "about to expire." "After the examination by the technical teams of the Ministry of Health of the first batch of Pfizer vaccines received this evening from Israel (...) it was discovered that it did not comply with the characteristics provided for by the agreement Government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said at a press conference hours after the Hebrew state announced an agreement. “The government refuses to receive vaccines that are about to expire,” Melhem added.
This agreement was reached at the initiative of the Pfizer laboratory.
100,000 doses had already been transferred, according to the Israeli body in charge of civilian operations in the Palestinian Territories.
The initiative was initially approved on the Palestinian side in order to "
to speed up the vaccination campaign and achieve collective immunity, ”indicated the Ministry of Health in Ramallah.
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“The coronavirus knows no borders and does not differentiate between peoples.
This important exchange of vaccines is in the interest of each party ", tweeted for his part Nitzan Horowitz, new Israeli Minister of Health, saying he wished for" cooperation between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors in other areas ".
Only 5% of Palestinians vaccinated
Thanks to a vast vaccination campaign, launched at the end of December after an agreement with the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, about 55% of the Israeli population, or more than 5.1 million people, received two doses of the vaccine.
On the Palestinian side, only 260,713 people received their two doses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
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"We are free, it's a miracle": the Israelis happy to drop the mask outside
From Wednesday to Thursday, 170 new cases of patients were identified in the two Palestinian Territories, bringing the total toll since the start of the pandemic to more than 312,000, including about 3,540 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. In Israel, 25 new cases were identified from Thursday to Friday, according to health authorities who recorded a total of about 840,000 patients, including more than 6,420 deaths.