Israel says COVID-19 vaccines sent to Palestine were 'completely valid'

After Palestine Authority called off the COVID-19 vaccine exchange deal with its neighbours, Israel’s health ministry insisted that the shipment of vaccine doses that were rejected as about to expire were “completely valid”. Palestinians on Friday had stated that the 1.2 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine sent by Israel are to “expire too soon”. As part of the exchange deal, Palestine was supposed to provide Israel with the shipments of Pfizer jabs originally meant for Palestinians scheduled for delivery in the months of September and October.

However, PA spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said that the initial delivery of some 90,000 Pfizer doses failed to conform to the “specifications contained in the agreement”. The WAFA news agency reported that prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh instructed the minister of health to cancel the agreement. 

In response, the Israeli health ministry on June 19 said that the vaccines it delivered were “completely valid,” even though the prime minister’s office acknowledged that they were “about to expire,” without specifying the use-by date. The Israeli ministry added that the Palestinian health ministry received Pfizer vaccines that were valid. It said that the expiration dates were known, agreed on and matched the agreement between the two sides.

Vaccine drive in Palestine, Israel  

Meanwhile, Palestine has been struggling with its COVID vaccination drive in contrast to Israel, which has already vaccinated nearly 60% of its population. Palestine has managed to vaccinate only 5.3% of its population, administering 2.49 lakh people with both doses. Israel has refrained from undertaking any campaign to vaccinate the general Palestinian population, including those residing in the West Bank. In fact, last month Health Ministry Director-General Chezy Levy while advocating help for Palestinians said that Israel should demand a COVID negative test for Palestinians wanting to come into the country for medical treatment. 

The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, has received COVID vaccines through COVAX, a global vaccine program for poor and middle-income countries backed by the World Health Organization. COVAX, advocated by the WHO, aims to provide enough free doses to immunize up to 20 per cent of a participating country’s population, for which around 90 countries have signed up for the program, including India. The doses received so far by the PA for use in the West Bank include 100,000 from China and 58,000 from Russia. Previously, Israel had donated 5,000 Moderna and 200 Pfizer doses for Palestinian medical workers.

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