By Zainah El-Haroun
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian hospitals are overcrowded and intensive care units in some areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank have 100% capacity with coronavirus patients, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Tuesday.
Palestinian cities have set up full closures over the past two weeks to control the rising COVID-19 infections, even as neighboring Israel has begun lifting restrictions as it continues one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns.
“The percentage of hospital occupancy in some areas has reached more than 100%,” Shtayyeh said in Ramallah, one of the West Bank cities where his Palestinian Authority (PA) has limited self-government.
“The number of casualties is increasing and the number of deaths is increasing daily, forcing us to take strict, direct and unprecedented measures.”
The West Bank and Gaza, home to a total of 5.2 million Palestinians, have so far received about 34,700 doses. It comes from small donations by Israel and Russia, as well as 20,000 sent to Gaza by the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, restaurants reopened in Israel on Sunday as the country maintained a rapid pace of mass vaccinations.
“I have brought millions of doses, now I will have to bring tens of millions of doses. I am currently in talks with Pfizer and Moderna to bring more,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel Army Radio, leading him to the March 23 election. .
According to the Ministry of Health, 53% of its 9 million inhabitants gave at least one dose of Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and 38% received both doses.
The contrast did not go unnoticed by Palestinians.
On Monday, Israel extended its vaccination program to Palestinian workers working in Israel and in the West Bank settlements.
Many Palestinians argue that Israel is neglecting its obligations as an occupying power by not including it in the mass rollout.
“The number of vaccinations in Israel is very high,” Saji Khalil, 75, told Reuters. “Even the Palestinian workers who vaccinated them did so to serve the Israeli community, not to look after the welfare of the workers.”
Israeli officials say the Palestinian Authority is responsible for vaccinating the population under Oslo’s interim peace accords.
Many Palestinians are dissatisfied with their leaders. The PA came under fire from rights groups last week after admitting to sending 10% of the dose of COVID-19 he received to GDPs.
Firas Narawesh, of Ramallah, said the government had failed to provide vaccinations to ordinary Palestinians, and “distributed vaccinations in an unfair manner and in an unequal manner with clear favoritism and corruption.”
(Additional reporting by Adel Abu Nimeh and Ismael Khader in Ramallah; editing by Stephen Farrell and Mark Heinrich)