JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel on Friday postponed vaccination plans for Palestinians working inside the country and its West Bank settlements until further notice.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates day-to-day affairs with the Palestinian Authority, attributed the postponement to “administrative delays,” adding that a new start date for the campaign will be determined later.
The vaccination program was due to begin on Sunday on crossings from the West Bank to Israel and Israeli industrial zones.
These inoculations could have calmed criticism of Israel for not sharing significant amounts of its vaccine reserves with Palestinians living under Israeli control in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, even when Israel managed to launch one of the vaccines. fastest in the world.
Israel had also announced plans to share surplus vaccines with long-range allies in Africa, Europe and Latin America, but the decision was frozen for legal reasons. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with leaders from Denmark and Austria, said the three nations would join forces in the fight against COVID-19 with an investment in vaccine research and deployment.
Some 100,000 Palestinian workers in the West Bank work in Israel. The PA had acquired enough doses for just 6,000 people, meaning that the vast majority of the estimated 7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will remain unvaccinated.
The West Bank underwent new restrictive measures last week to curb the rise in infections.