Palestinian Authority cancels vaccine swap deal with Israel
The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel reached a loan agreement whereby Israel would provide the PA with between 1 and 1.4 million doses of Pfizer vaccine to enable them to advance the slow-moving vaccination campaign in the Palestinian territories.
In return, the PA would provide Israel with a shipment of doses of the same vaccine to be received between September and October. However, hours after announcing the deal, the PA cancelled the shipment with Israel to transfer one million doses of coronavirus vaccine, claiming that it refused to receive doses that were "about to expire".
The decision to hand over surplus vaccines due to expire had already been taken by the previous Israeli government, led until Sunday by Benjamin Netanyahu, but had not yet been implemented, health ministry sources told the Haaretz newspaper. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office had also confirmed the exchange in a joint statement with the defence and health ministries.
Until now, Israel had only provided 5,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine and 200 doses of Pfizer's vaccine to the Palestinian health system, which relies heavily on the World Health Organisation's international Covax programme for resource-poor countries.
PA spokesman Ibrahim Melhem announced the cancellation at a joint press conference with Health Minister Mai Alkaila just hours after the deal was reported, saying the initial doses sent did not meet agreed specifications.
"After the health ministry's technical teams examined the first batch of Pfizer vaccines received this afternoon from Israel, estimated at 90,000 doses, it was found that they do not conform to the specifications contained in the agreement, and consequently Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh instructed the health minister to cancel the deal," Melhem said.
In announcing the deal early on Friday, Israel made it clear that the vaccine doses would "expire soon", but did not publicly specify a date. After receiving the first shipment, the Palestinians said the doses would expire sooner than expected.
Israel has embarked on one of the fastest vaccination campaigns in the world, which has allowed it to gradually lift restrictions to curb COVID-19, including mandatory indoor masking this week.
In this regard, Israel has vaccinated 60% of the population with at least one dose in less than a few months, out of a total population of 9 million. As a result of this journey, Israel has ensured that a significant proportion of the population is now protected against COVID and has seen a clear decline in mortality rates, with the official death toll so far in the pandemic standing at 6,243 people.
With hardly any new cases of COVID-19 reported, the Israeli government is keeping the country closed to foreign visitors as a precautionary measure. In the Palestinian territories, meanwhile, infection rates remain high.
Although the security barrier separates most of the West Bank from Israel and there is an almost airtight fence between Israel and Gaza, the entire region is considered an epidemiological unit.
A month ago, the director general of health, Chezy Levy, had already urged support for the Palestinian immunisation programme so as not to undermine the gains made in Israel. "If we don't help them soon, morbidity among Israelis may suffer," he warned.
The Israeli government also declared that its "vaccine stockpiling needs are now covered". Less than 10 per cent 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 per cent in the 2 million-strong Gaza Strip.
Several human rights organisations have strongly criticised the Israeli government for its refusal to provide the drug to the inhabitants of the territories it occupies. For its part, the Israeli government claims that the Palestinian Authority is responsible for overseeing public health under the principles of self-determination, according to the Oslo Accords.
The West Bank Ministry of Health stated that some 500,000 Palestinians have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 in more than 90 centres in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Some 80,000 people a day are currently being vaccinated, according to the ministry. To date, more than 300,000 infections have been recorded in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, with 3,545 deaths.
The response to the coronavirus in Gaza has been paralysed by last month's violence, which devastated infrastructure and reduced entire buildings to piles of rubble.