Israel will administer COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians who work in Israel or in its settlements in the West Bank, the Israeli liaison office said on Sunday.
The vaccination campaign, which could apply to around 130,000 Palestinians, will begin within days, COGAT said.
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An Israeli healthcare worker vaccinating a Palestinian against coronavirus at the Qalandia Checkpoint
(Photo: AFP)
The full outline of the campaign will be published in the coming days, but it is set to include pop-up clinics in several border checkpoints and industrial zones in the West Bank, which will be staffed by Israeli health care workers and use Moderna's vaccine, according to a statement by COGAT.
Shaher Saad, secretary-general of the Palestinian Workers' Union, said thousands of Palestinians who work in the Israeli service and industrial sectors had already been vaccinated privately by their employers inside Israel.
He said Palestinian medical teams would be stationed at checkpoints to administer the vaccines, by agreement with Israeli authorities.
Sunday's announcement drew a measured welcome from Dan Waites, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
"The Palestinian population remains, in the main, unprotected from COVID-19, and we would be glad to see more initiatives of this kind. We would like to see full, equitable access to vaccines for all Israelis and Palestinians," he said.
Israel has given at least one dose of the Pfizer Inc vaccine to more than half of its 9.3 million population, including Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
But it has come under international criticism for not doing more to enable vaccination of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Palestinians have received around 32,000 vaccine doses to date, for the 5.2 million people who live in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli officials have said that under the Oslo peace accords, the Palestinian health ministry is responsible for vaccinating people in Gaza and those parts of the West Bank where it has limited self-rule.
On Thursday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh announced that schools across the West Bank will shutter for the coming 12 days. In a televised address, Shtayyeh said that the restrictions, which come into effect on Sunday, will not be applied to high schools in the area.
Other restrictions announced by the prime minister will include a ban on social gatherings, including funerals and weddings, and limitations on nighttime travel as well as non-essential businesses.
He said that the restrictions were triggered by the spread of UK and S.African strains of COVID-19 in the area, with schools identified as key infection hubs.
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