JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority on Saturday announced a new set of closure restrictions on the West Bank as coronavirus infections increase and Palestinians await the implementation of a major vaccination program.
The move comes because Israel has acquired enough stock of the vaccine for itself and has continued with its own vaccination program, surpassing the rest of the world. The imbalance added a new friction to the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the investigation into Israel’s commitments in the occupied territories.
The closure restrictions, which will last 12 days, include the closure of universities, night roads on travel and non-essential trade, and a ban on gatherings for weddings, parties and funerals.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said on Saturday that 910 new cases and five deaths had been recorded in the West Bank in the previous 24 hours. Another Palestinian, she added, died in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after contracting Covid-19.
Al-Kaila killed three more Palestinians from East Jerusalem.
About 91 percent of Palestinians infected with the disease since March have recovered, Ms. Al-Kaila said. Overall, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, there have been about 206,440 confirmed cases among Palestinians in the past year, including about 24,500 in East Jerusalem joined by Israel.
The vaccination program of Israel extends to all residents of East Jerusalem, but many Palestinians were reluctant to take the vaccine, in part, residents said, due to low confidence in Israeli authorities and a flood of unfounded, negative rumors about the vaccine being used on social media.
Israeli officials say the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-government in parts of the West Bank, took responsibility for health services in its areas of control when the interim peace agreements known as the Oslo Accords were signed in the mid-1990s.
Israel has vaccinated more than half of its population of 9.2 million with a first dose, and more than a third with a second dose, but so far has provided only 2,000 vaccine doses to the Palestinian Authority and promised 3,000 more . More than 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, with another two million in Gaza.
Israeli officials said it was in their best interest to help the Palestinians once Israeli citizens, including hundreds of thousands of settlers in the West Bank, were fully vaccinated. They indicated that they may begin vaccinating tens of thousands of Palestinian workers who regularly go to work in Israel and that they may transfer more vaccine to the Palestinian Authority, but no details were made available.
Human rights advocates argued that Israel should vaccinate the Palestinian population, in parallel with its own citizens. They cite the Fourth Geneva Convention, under which occupying forces are obliged to ensure the public health of people living under occupation as far as possible. An annex to the Oslo Accords also calls for co-operation to combat epidemics.
The dispute was exacerbated by the recent invasion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with promises to send thousands of spare doses to allies from Hungary to Guatemala. This attempt was put on hold when Israel’s attorney general investigated whether the decision – making went through the right channels.
So far, the Palestinians have received 10,000 doses of his Sputnik V vaccine, of which 2,000 have been transferred from the West Bank to Gaza. Last weekend, another shipment of 20,000 Russian doses donated by the United Arab Emirates entered Gaza across the Egyptian border.
Palestinian officials expect to receive 37,440 doses of Pfizer and hundreds of thousands of AstraZeneca doses through the global co-initiative Covax sometime in March. Additional supplies of AstraZeneca vaccine are also expected.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said on Saturday that global competition was mostly blamed for delays with a significant vaccination, but according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, a vaccine would be expected next week.
Israel is still struggling with high infection rates, despite the successful vaccination of vaccines, and has imposed a travel ban on travel since Thursday in an effort to prevent parties during the Purim holiday.