Moderna vaccinates the first batch of 5,000 pledges delivered by Israel to protect medical workers.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has started vaccinating COVID in the West Bank after receiving 2,000 doses from Israel, Palestinian officials said.
The Moderna vaccines are the first batch of the 5,000 beats pledged delivered by Israel to protect medical workers.
In the past few weeks, Israel has been under increasing pressure around the world, including from the United Nations, to help Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in West Bank and Gaza Strip under siege to access vaccines.
“We started today,” Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said on Tuesday, adding that a supply of doses would be sent to Gaza, an Israeli-controlled zone under the control of the Palestinian group Hamas, so that Inclusion of frontline staff. start in the enclave.
“We have given the highest priority to health workers… and those working in intensive care units,” she said in a video released by Palestinian television.
The PA has previously said it has signed contracts with four vaccine suppliers, including Russian manufacturers Sputnik V..
The PA released the first known coronavirus vaccine Tuesday after receiving thousands of doses from Israel [Abbas Momani/AFP]
Last month, they said they were prepared to receive enough vaccines to cover 70 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinians hope to gain tens of thousands more in the coming weeks through the World Health Organization (WHO) program.
‘Enough to cover a fraction’
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah in the West Bank, said the 5,000 vaccinated sightings Palestinians receive are not “enough to cover a fraction of what Palestinians need”.
“The Ministry of Health states that over 12,000 frontline workers in the health department treat COVID patients in ICUs and laboratories and are all in urgent need,” she said.
“There are also five million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who have not had access to vaccination to date.”
The WHO has expressed concern about the inequality between Israel, which is leading one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, and the Palestinian-owned areas.
Rights groups say Israel has a duty to be a resident power to vaccinate Palestinians. Israel denies that such a duty exists, and says that its own citizens are its priority.