Terrorist group Hamas' health ministry announced on Monday it had received 19,500 coronavirus test kits from the World Health Organization after it said it could no longer carry out testing in the Gaza Strip due to a severe shortage of kits and a spike in positive coronavirus cases in the Palestinian territory
According to the ministry, the test kits supplied will be enough for eight days of activity at the Strip's central testing laboratory.
The Islamist movement, which controls the coastal enclave, called for urgent action "to provide the necessary equipment" to screen the population for the virus.
The only laboratory in the territory able to analyze COVID-19 test samples ceased its operations "due to a lack of equipment", the organization's Health Ministry said in a statement.
Senior Hamas official and former health minister Bassem Naim said separately that authorities usually carry out "between 2,500 and 3,000 tests per day, at a cost of between $75,000 and $100,000".
"There is an urgent need to take measures to save the lives of Gaza's citizens and contain the crisis," he told AFP.
The tiny, densely populated enclave is home to two million people and has been under an Israeli blockade supported by Egypt since 2007.
Authorities closed Gaza's borders early in the pandemic, only allowing entry to a limited number of people, who were then required to isolate for three weeks in quarantine centers.
In mid-August, Gaza had recorded only around 100 COVID-19 cases, but the past two weeks have seen a steep spike in infections.
Hamas on Thursday announced a lockdown on weekends lasting from December 11 until the end of the month. It also closed schools, universities, kindergartens and mosques.
In the West Bank, separated from Gaza by Israeli territory, the government - run by the Palestinian Authority - said it would reimpose a week-long lockdown in four out of 11 provinces.
"The governorates of Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem and Tulkarem will be completely closed from the evening of Thursday, December 10 for a period of seven days," Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said on Monday.
"All commercial and service activities will be shut down, except for pharmacies, bakeries, supermarkets and grocery stores."
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Palestinian Hamas policemen patrol on empty streets amid the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in Gaza
(Photo: EPA)
The move comes after a two-week-long curfew on weekends and evenings was enforced across the West Bank in late November to fight a "worrying spread" of the virus. The curfew was extended until December 17.
In total, the Palestinian health ministry has recorded more than 74,160 COVID-19 cases, including nearly 700 deaths, in the West Bank.
In Gaza, nearly 25,600 infections have been officially registered, including around 150 deaths.