The Israeli government announced on Sunday that it would transfer 5,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to Palestinians to immunize frontline health workers, The Associated Press reports.
The office of Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz made the announcement, noting the AP, adding that the statement was the first official confirmation of a transfer. According to the news service, no schedule was announced for when the transfer would take place.
Palestinian officials said their government did not have the funds to buy enough vaccines for its population. The AP notes that the Palestinian Authority is trying to obtain doses through the World Health Organization (WHO) COVAX program, which seeks to provide doses to countries in need. Reportedly, however, the program was slow to start spreading.
Israel has so far done excellently with the vaccination of its population, but has withheld the vaccines of the residents of the Palestinian Authority. Israel had earlier acknowledged that it would be in its own interest to provide vaccines to the Palestinians as they are close, but officials said they would not provide any doses before vaccinating their own population.
Many world leaders in health have called for inequality in the worldwide distribution of vaccines, with affluent countries buying more than enough doses in advance to immunize their populations, while some poorer countries have received almost nothing.
Earlier in January, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus slammed vaccine producers, accusing them of prioritizing profits by concentrating their approval efforts on richer countries. He noted at the WTO Executive Council meeting that one poorer country, Guinea, had received only 25 doses.