Foreign Minister Tony Blinken asked his Israeli counterpart in their telephone conversation on Monday that Israel would facilitate the transfer of COVID-19 vaccines to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli officials told me.
Send the news: The Israeli prime minister’s office announced on Tuesday that Israel had decided to send a “symbolic amount” of vaccines to the Palestinian Authority and to several countries requesting assistance.
- The prime minister’s office said the Palestinians would receive thousands of vaccines for medical teams.
- A similar number of doses will be given to several other countries such as Honduras, which sent a plane to pick up the vaccines. The vaccines are taken from an offer of 100,000 doses of Moderna that Israel bought but has not yet used.
Why it matters: Israel has improved its aid to the Palestinians on COVID-19 over the past few weeks after receiving criticism in the international media.
- Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said in a Zoom speech at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that Israel had refused to give vaccinations to the Palestinians or even allow foreign vaccinations to cross the West Bank and Enter Gaza.
- Israel claims that this criticism is false and politically motivated.
The big picture: The Biden government wants to improve the situation on the West Bank and Gaza and gradually build trust between Israelis and Palestinians. Biden administration officials believe the fight against COVID-19 could be a basis for positive cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians.
Drive the news: Blinken and Ashkenazi discussed Iran and other regional issues during their phone call, but the COVID-19 cooperation with the Palestinians was raised by the Foreign Minister as a specific point of action.
- Israeli officials told me Ashkenazi stressed to Blinken that Israel is the country that has vaccinated the highest number of Palestinians in the world so far, citing 300,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem who receive health services from Israel.
- Ashkenazi told Blinken that Israel had given several hundred doses of vaccination to the Palestinians from its national stock, allowed a consignment of Sputnik V vaccines from Russia to enter the West Bank, and allowed part of this consignment into Gaza. has. Ashkenazi told Blinken that Israel was also considering vaccinating some 75,000 Palestinians working in Israel.
- State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to comment. In an information session on Friday, Price said the US believes it is important for Palestinians to have increased access to COVID vaccines in the coming weeks.
What next: Last Friday, a delegation of senior officials of the Israeli Ministry of Health visited Ramallah for talks with their Palestinian counterparts. One of the issues discussed was that Israel had to give the Palestinians 100,000 doses of vaccines from its national stock to vaccinate medical teams and people over 60.