Israel Donates 1 Million Doses Of Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine To Palestine

JAKARTA - Israel plans to send around 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Palestine, under a joint vaccine agreement program, Israeli authorities said Friday, June 18 local time.

Under the terms of the collective agreement announced by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the Palestinians agreed to provide Israel with a reciprocal dose of one of its shipments to those due to arrive later this year.

Human rights groups have criticized Israel, which has one of the fastest COVID-19 vaccination programs in the world but has done little to provide vaccines for residents of Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The vaccine deal is one of the first policy steps of the Prime Minister Bennett government, which was sworn in last Sunday, replacing Benjamin Netanyahu with the Palestinians.

"Israel will transfer to the Palestinian Authority 1 to 1.4 million doses of Pfizer vaccine", said a joint statement from Prime Minister Bennett's Office, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Health.

The allocated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will expire soon, the statement said, and has been approved, given that Israel's stockpile of COVID-19 vaccine to date can still meet its needs.

"The initial 100,000 doses were transferred on Friday", the Israeli authorities said, without specifying an exact expiration date.

A source at the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed the deal, explaining that Palestine hopes to receive the delivery of Pfizer doses in August or September. While Israel says it will receive a reciprocal dose from the Palestinians in September or October.

Separately, criticizing the dose-sharing deal, Israel's nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights wrote on Twitter", It is highly doubtful that the PA will be able to use all the vaccines, as they will expire".

To note, about 55 percent of eligible Israelis have been fully vaccinated, coverage rates have been largely unchanged by this month's expansion of eligibility, including children aged 12 to 15.

Meanwhile, about 30 percent of eligible Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, home to 5.2 million people, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to Palestinian officials.

Palestine is known to have received doses of the vaccine from Israel, Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, and the global COVAX vaccine sharing initiative.