Israel Turns Its Vaccine Strategy For Palestinians By Delivering Over 1 Million Doses

A Palestinian receives the COVID vaccine on March 25 in Tubas (West Bank) RANEEN SAWAFTA / Reuters

Israel is transferring between 1 and 1.4 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 to Palestinian health to boost immunization in the territories of the West Bank and Gaza.

The decision, which puts an end to months of hesitation by the Israeli government in the face of international requests for health cooperation with its closest neighbors, follows an exchange, as announced by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office on Friday.

After having immunized almost its entire adult population, Israel now gives up part of its strategic stocks of coronavirus medication "which will expire soon" in exchange for receiving at the beginning of next fall an equivalent batch that the Palestinian Authority had acquired from Pfizer for delivery between September and October.

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The Israeli Government states that it has its "vaccine storage needs covered" at this time.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deal to Reuters, without setting a date for its execution either.

Less than 10% of the 5.2 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have so far received at least one dose, a percentage that drops to 3% in the Gaza Strip (2 million inhabitants).

The decision to give up the surplus vaccines that are about to expire had already been adopted by the previous Israeli government, led until last Sunday by Benjamin Netanyahu, although inexplicably it had not yet been applied, according to sources from the Ministry of Health revealed to the

Haaretz

newspaper

.

A month ago, the Director General of Health, Chezy Levy, had already urged to support the immunization program of the Palestinians so as not to undermine the achievements made in Israel.

"If we don't help them soon, morbidity among Israelis may be affected," he warned.

The new head of the Health portfolio is Nitzan Horowitz, leader of the Meretz party (pacifist left), integrated into the new coalition with conservatives, centrists and an Arab formation.

International organizations and humanitarian NGOs have been calling on Israel to assist the Palestinian Authority in the vaccination campaign. While these petitions maintain that, as the occupying power, Israel is responsible for the health situation of the Palestinians, the Israeli Government has replied that, in accordance with the Oslo Accords (1993), the Palestinian Authority has exclusive health competence in health. So far Israel had only given 5,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine and 200 of Pfizer's to Palestinian health, which relies heavily on the international Covax program for countries with limited resources sponsored by the World Health Organization.

Israel has in fact returned to normality prior to the pandemic, and the use of masks in closed places has ceased to be mandatory since last Tuesday, with hardly any new cases of Covid-19 declared and with the caution of keeping the country closed to foreign visitors. In the Palestinian territories, meanwhile, infection rates remain high, with screening tests averaging 250 new cases a day, after reaching 3,000 three months ago.

Israel has bet all its cards on next-generation messenger RNA vaccines against covid-19, such as those from Pfizer and Moderna. After having immunized nearly 60% of its 9.3 million inhabitants exclusively with this drug, vaccination of those under 16 years of age, who represent 30% of the population, has begun in recent weeks. The Ministry of Health decided to get rid of the AstraZeneca vaccines (deactivated adenovirus) and has given up using the 10 million doses it had contracted with the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company.

Israel is committed to the purchase of another 10 million doses of Pfizer and six million doses of Moderna to cover the country's needs until the end of 2022, in anticipation of having to give a third booster injection this year and a seasonal injection a year. that comes, depending on the evolution of the variants of the coronavirus.