Ministry of Health officials believe it would be a wrong move if Israel did not provide vaccines from the stocks it bought to the Palestinian Authority.
A few days ago reports have seen that the World Health Organization appealed to Israel to send inoculations to the PA, but Jerusalem said they would not do so at this time.
Ramallah has not yet publicly called on Israel – which has emerged as the world leader in vaccines – to take responsibility for vaccinating the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, he has yet to criticize Israel for not doing so.
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The issue of Israel’s legal obligation to the Palestinians in a pandemic is highly controversial and hotly debated by international legal experts. The 1995 Oslo II Box delegates responsibility for health care to the Palestinian Authority. But the same consensus also calls for both sides to cooperate in fighting epidemics.
Anonymous: Israeli Health Officials told Channel 12 on Monday that it would be wise to avoid the Palestinians from an epidemiological perspective. “We can’t get tens of thousands of unvaccinated people into the Israeli region,” the network said.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian workers from the West Bank enter Israel every day, although some restrictions were imposed during national locks.
A Palestinian health worker will take test samples for the coronavirus at a health center in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 5, 2020. (Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90)
Deputy Health Minister MK Yoav Kisch told Channel 12, “Israeli citizens come first. Only after we have completed the vaccination of the country ‘s residents can we consider any other application, including those from the PA. ”
The health officials agreed to speak to the network about the favorable order established by Kisch, but said they would “definitely want to see the Palestinians vaccinated,” adding the that would endanger the health of Israelis.
Pushed on the same topic in an interview Monday with British Sky News, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein stressed that Palestinians must “learn how to take care of themselves.”
“I do not think that anyone in this country, regardless of his or her views, can imagine that I would give a vaccine from an Israeli citizen, and, with all good intentions, give it to him. our neighbors, “he said
Edelstein pointed out that Israel has been supporting the Palestinians, including through the transfer of medical equipment, since the early days of the pandemic.
The Rapid Response Team of the Department of Preventive Medicine of the Palestinian Ministry of Health will take test samples for Coronavirus at a health center in Rafah, a town in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 25, 2020. (Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90)
“We understand that it is in Israel’s interest that there are fewer issues on the Palestinian side,” he clarified. “Many Palestinians are working here in Israel. You can’t split the two neatly and say, you know, ‘They can deal with it themselves; it is not an issue for us. ‘It’s our subject. “
When asked if Israel would give vaccines to Palestinians once its people are fully vaccinated, Edelstein replied, “We will certainly consider that but as I said, I hope with hope that part of their population will be vaccinated with various vaccines before then try to buy. If we need any further assistance, we will offer. “
In fact, PA Health Minister Mai al-Kaila on Monday announced that an agreement has been officially struck between Russia and the PA to give Palestinians the Sputnik V Moscow coronavirus vaccine.
Russia’s Direct Investment Fund said in a statement that vaccines will come to the West Bank next month. Palestinian health officials had previously speculated that the Sputnik vaccines could arrive as early as the end of December, although there was no basis in these predictions.
Public health experts have been skeptical of the Russian vaccine, which they build up and produced without sufficiently rigorous testing methods.
Over the weekend, Palestinian health officials announced that they had signed a contract with AstraZeneca and expected their first major vaccine to arrive by the end of February.
“We have received a formal letter from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca that the vaccines will reach Palestine by 15 February between the middle and end of the month,” a Palestinian Ministry of Health Ministry spokesman Kamal al-Shakhra told Voice of Palestine Radio Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein (C) will attend a reception to arrive a plane carrying loads of Pfizer-BioNTech anti-coronavirus vaccine, at Ben Gurion airport near the Israeli city Tel Aviv in January 10, 2021. (Motti MILLROD / POOL / AFP)
The PA, which has tried to introduce vaccines to Palestinian residents on the West Bank and Gaza, has set a number of deadlines for the arrival of the vaccines, including before the end of December last year. last year. To date, not all dates have been met.
Israel has already given first doses to more than 1.7 million people out of a population of 9.29 million, the highest vaccination rate in the world. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to speed up the invasion campaign to 170,000 doses a day in an effort to end the pandemic of coronavirus infection in Israel by the end of March.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel was neglecting its obligations to provide vaccines to Palestinians “in accordance with international law.”
“Israel is trying to release its responsibilities as a proprietary power, and throw the full responsibility on the Palestinian government,” the PA Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The study by the Palestinian leadership to obtain the vaccines from different places does not relieve Israel of its obligations to the Palestinian people in providing the vaccines,” the Foreign Ministry said.
However, on Sunday, PA’s Foreign Ministry returned to clarify that Israel’s legal obligations regarding Palestinian welfare did not mean “in any way a suspension of Palestinian state obligations to the Palestinian people, including health care. and COVID vaccines. . “
Most of Israeli vaccines came from Pfizer, which the PA has admitted would have trouble storing in the necessary sub-zero conditions.
Palestinian officials are also denying media reports in the Israeli media last week that say a secret operation of thousands of shots was fired for “humanitarian reasons.”
Members of Palestinian security forces will carry out a lockout following the spread of the coronavirus in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on 18 December 2020. (Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90)
“The Ministry of Health has not received any vaccines from Israel,” Palestinian Authority chief health officer Osama al-Najjar told The Times of Israel at the time.
Ramallah also relies on an internationally backed device called COVAX, which aims to provide free coronavirus vaccines to about 90 participating countries that would not be able to afford the pictures. If all goes according to plan, COVAX will deliver enough doses to vaccinate about 20% of Palestinians.
But the COVAX vaccines do not seem to reach Ramallah or Gaza City for long. The World Health Organization, a major sponsor of COVAX, has yet to approve any vaccines for use in the program. The spread will also be very slow. An initial dose of vaccines – enough to cover 3% of the Palestinian population – will be sent to Ramallah for use by priority groups before further doses are phased out.
Vaccinations are expected to start free in February, and delivery could be as late as mid-year, according to the World Health Organization.