Jerusalem – After several delays, Israel began vaccinating Palestinians working in the country and in their West Bank settlements on Monday, more than two months after launching a lightning campaign to immunize its population.
Palestinian workers who passed through the West Bank at various access control points in Israel received the first doses of Moderna vaccine, administered by paramedics from the Magen David Adom healthcare service.
The operation organized by COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates government activities in the West Bank, has been repeatedly postponed.
About 100,000 Palestinian workers in the West Bank work in Israel and its settlements, considered by much of the international community to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
Major General Kamil Abu Rukun, who leads COGAT, said in a statement in Arabic that Israelis and Palestinians “live in the same epidemiological space” and that vaccinating Palestinians is a common interest.
Israel has administered approximately 8.7 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine to its population of 9.3 million people. About 3.7 million Israelis – more than 40 percent – have already received both doses. But since Monday, the government has offered few vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, highlighting more general inequality and attracting international criticism.
Human rights groups and many Palestinians claim that, as the occupying power, Israel is responsible for providing vaccines to Palestinians. Israel says it has no such obligation under the 1990 interim peace agreements.
The Israeli authorities have said that the priority is to vaccinate the Israeli population first, while the Palestinian Authority has said it will receive its own vaccines through a World Health Organization alliance with humanitarian organizations, known as COVAX.
So far, the Palestinian Authority has procured enough doses for just 6,000 people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where nearly 5 million Palestinians live. He received 2,000 doses from Israel and bought another 10,000 from a vaccine made in Russia. All this requires two doses per person.
Israel has also announced plans to share the remaining vaccines with allies in Africa, Europe and Latin America, although the decision has been blocked by legal details. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Danish and Austrian authorities on Thursday and said the three countries would join forces in the fight against COVID-19 through an investment in vaccine research and distribution.